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The Brooklyn funeral home shuttered for storing decomposing bodies in U-Haul trucks amid the coronavirus crisis is facing a wave of litigation from families outraged over the treatment of their loved ones.
The city’s court system reopened to nonemergency cases Monday, and by Tuesday at least five suits had been filed against Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Services, records show.
Court papers detail a variety of claims — including the mishandling of remains and intentional infliction of emotional distress — based on allegations described as “so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency.”
One suit seeks at least $1.25 million in damages, while another seeks $75,000 in compensation and enough punitive damages to deter anyone “from ever engaging in such conduct again.” The others don’t specify amounts.
The mother and sister of Terry Roberts, who died on March 31, say in their Bronx Supreme Court suit that Cleckley “retrieved and assumed responsibility” for his remains on April 7 and was supposed to embalm his body and prepare it for a “family visitation.”
The funeral home repeatedly “made excuses about not having room for visitation with the remains” before finally agreeing to a “video viewing” on April 12, but “told the family that Mr. Roberts’ mother, [Ernette] Roberts, should not view the remains because they were so badly decomposed,” court papers say.
“To the devastation of the family, it was clear that the defendants had allowed their loved one’s remains to putrefy and decay,” the suit says.
“Because of the gruesome condition of the remains, the family was forced to agree to a closed casket burial.”
Two other Brooklyn funeral homes — Armistead Burial and Cremation Service and DeKalb Funeral Services — are variously named as co-defendants in the four other suits, accused of handing off bodies to Cleckley without the knowledge of the families involved.
In one suit, filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court, the survivors of Hermite Mercius allege that Armistead retrieved her body from the unspecified nursing home where she died on April 18, then sent them a photograph that “did not look like their beloved sister and aunt.” They asked for more photos to ensure that Mercius’ remains “were being well cared for and treated with dignity and respect,” but never heard back, according to the suit.
“To their horror, on May 6, 2020, Hermite Mercius’ family learned from the Medical Examiner’s Office that her uncremated remains were found among the many dozens of bodies found stuffed into an unrefrigerated U-Haul and stacked inside a small room at Cleckley,” the suit says.
In a Brooklyn federal court filing, Florida resident Nakia Shaw says she hired DeKalb to cremate the body of her dad, Steven Ceruti, after he died on March 23. In April, the funeral home allegedly told her that it had arranged “a dignified, respectful, lawful cremation” and would be in touch regarding her dad’s ashes, but “never called again.”
Instead, Shaw got a call from the ME’s Office on May 7, telling her that his “uncremated remains” were among those found at Cleckley.
The state Department of Health suspended Cleckley’s license on May 1, two days after complaints of foul odors and seeping liquids led the NYPD to discover dozens of bodies stashed in U-Haul trucks parked in front of and near its storefront at 2037A Utica Ave. in Flatlands.
Funeral director Andrew Cleckley has claimed that five other funeral homes used his space, telling the New York Times that he had bodies “coming out of our ears” around the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cleckley didn’t return messages, and a man who answered Armistead’s phone declined to comment.
DeKalb’s lawyer, Joseph McBride, released a statement calling the allegations “tragic and inconceivable” and saying that DeKalb “wants to assure our past, present and future clients that we will seek justice and accountability regarding this matter.”
