Cemetery Marker Hostage

Mourn too long at a cemetery it could cost you overtime minutes.�

A Riverside, Ca. widow, Karri Huerta, found that she was being charged $325 because about 200 mourners at the Olivewood Cemetery did not get in their cars and leave the cemetery within the one-hour time limit set for the entire graveside service.� The young widow, with a three-year-old daughter, says no one told her there was an overtime charge, and that she was not in any position to ask the mourners to quickly run to their cars and leave.�

Mrs. Huerta's husband died of cancer at the age of 31.� He was a popular high school coach and teacher.

But the worst part was that when she questioned the over-time charge and the short time at the cemetery, the manager of the Olivewood Cemetery told her she would not be permitted to place the marker on her husband's grave until she paid their extra late fee.� The manager told Mrs. Huerta that the Miller-Jones Mortuary should pay the bill, but if they didn't she would not be permitted to put the stone marker on the grave.�

The owner of the Miller-Jones Mortuary said she also owed extra for four more motorcycle escorts for the almost 200 cars.� Mrs. Huerta said one of the reasons they got to the cemetery late was because one of the escorts took 30 mourners to the wrong location, and the minister who was to perform the graveside service was in that group.� Mrs. Huerta says a woman in the accounting department of Miller-Jones Mortuary said she did not have to pay that extra escort charge.� But the owner told me she did.

About five months later the Olivewood Cemetery still would not let Mrs. Huerta put the monument marker on her husband's grave.� The Huerta family E-mailed me ("The Troubleshooter") about this problem.

I immediately contacted people in the Funeral and Cemetery Industry and they all told me "this was unheard of and outrageous."

I called the manager of the Olivewood Cemetery and she said she had warned the mortuary funeral director that they had to be in the cemetery at 1:30pm and everyone out by 2:30pm because they had booked another service.� She said the over-time bill should be paid by the mortuary. But the owner of the mortuary said he would not pay and it was the obligation of the Huerta family.� The cemetery official said there was nothing in the contract that the family signed that said they had to be out in one-hour or pay over-time fees.

I talked to the owner of Miller-Jones Mortuary and the Manager of the Olivewood Cemetery about the ethics and contract legalities of what was being done to this family.� Then I invited the Cemetery Manager to be on my Troubleshooter Internet Talk Show to explain why she was doing this to the young widow.� After meeting with her Board of Directors, she changed her mind and said she would let Mrs. Huerta place a marker at her husband's grave.� The late charges will apparently be discussed with the mortuary.� I suggest to the Olivewood non-profit Cemetery Board that they rewrite their contracts so that consumers would know exactly what the over-time charges are, and who was responsible for paying them.

It is very difficult to ask a mourner, who is pausing at the grave to say their last good byes, to dash to their car and leave so the cemetery can bring in another service.� In the airline business this is called "overbooking."�

Editor's Note:� Mr. McIlvain's family has interests in the funeral industry and he champions the consumer's funeral rights under California and Federal law.

Filed October, 2004.