Carey v. Lima, Salmon & Tully Mortuary

WOOD (Fred B.), J.

Plaintiffs brought this action for damages allegedly caused by the negligence of the defendant embalmers in performing their contract to embalm the body of plaintiffs’ deceased father and ship it from San Jose, California, to Enid, Oklahoma. Upon the conclusion of the trial the court granted a directed verdict for the defendants.

The body arrived at Enid in a decayed condition, malodorous and dripping fluid. The mental and emotional shock suffered by plaintiffs upon learning that the body was in such a condition made them ill, an element of compensable injury that is within the purview of the legal principles expounded and applied in

Chelini

v.

Nieri,

32 Cal.2d 480 [196 P.2d 915],

Plaintiffs claim there was evidence that should have gone to the jury on the question of defendants’ negligence. They refer to the testimony of Richard M. Parkis, funeral director and mortician, who examined the body upon its arrival at Enid. He expressed the opinion, based upon the condition of the body, that the embalming fluid used in this case had not circulated throughout the body. He also testified that there are several methods whereby an embalmer can determine whether or not the embalming fluid has circulated throughout the body, and if it appears that the fluid has not

[44]

circulated in some part of the body an embalmer can pick up an artery in that part and inject embalming fluid in that area; also, when a body is to be shipped one is usually more careful to make sure he has adequate circulation, adequate fluid; you take more precautions in such a case.

Parkis also testified that his morticians worked some

17

to 20 hours upon restoration of this body, and that normally when a body has been shipped from somewhere else there are some small things an embalmer has to do, “but mostly what it has been has been makeup.”

The witnesses on both sides were agreed that circulation of the embalming fluid throughout the body is the purpose of a proper embalming job.