RIDGEFIELD, N.J. (1010 WINS) -- A family is suing a New Jersey funeral home for $50 million after they placed the wrong body in a casket last November.
Kyung Ja Kim, 93, died on November 10, 2021 and was supposed to have a funeral service at the Promise Church in Leonia with an open casket before she would be taken to a cemetery in Valhalla, New York.
When the body was delivered to the church, family members realized the funeral home had put the wrong body in the casket.
The family on Tuesday, convened at the office of their attorney Michael Maggiano to announce the lawsuit against the Central Funeral Home of New Jersey and the Blackley Funeral Home and Cremation Services, where they are seeking $50 million in damages.
“My mother lived a long life and she wanted her funeral to be a celebration,” her daughter, Kummi Kim said. “Her last wish was that everything would be at the church, the proper way. So I feel very guilty that we couldn’t give her her final wish.”
According to the lawsuit, the funeral service was held three days later at Promise Church after Kummi Kim told the funeral home that the body in the casket didn’t appear to be her mother.
The funeral director, Haemin Gina Chong, “responded with a very clear expression of denial and dismay over the question as if [Kummi Kim] did not appreciate a different appearance after death,” the lawsuit claimed. “Therefore [Kummi Kim] rationalized that the ‘altered appearance’ was attributable to the embalming process and application of heavy mortuary makeup, fake hair and/or some type of filler such as Botox.”
The lawsuit alleges that the funeral home mistakenly sent the body Whaja Kim, a woman who was described as 70 years old and placed Kyung Ja Kim’s dentures underneath the pillow in Whaja Kim’s coffin.
Maggiano said the mistake could have been avoided if the bodies had been tagged properly which is a standard procedure during funerals.
“There should have been identification so you don’t confuse one Kim for another,” Maggiano said. “This was a complete system failure at its very core. Was it negligence? Certainly.”
The lawsuit also claims that Chong called Kummi Kim while she was en route to Valhalla and offered to turn the funeral procession if she wasn’t confident that the body inside the casket was her mother's.
Kim was “confused and taken by surprise” at the offer and told Chong to proceed to the cemetery, the lawsuit added.
Mourners were "psychologically numb" when Chong directed the gravediggers to lift the casket back out of the ground and place it in the hearse, the suit alleges.
The funeral home offered to refund the Kim family the $9,000 it paid for funeral expenses, the lawsuit said.
Maggiano said the Kim family is seeking $50 million in damages for breach of contract, negligence, as well as emotional distress, and battery “as a result of the outrageous and mishandling of the body.”
The Kim family said it plans to split any jury awards with two Korean churches that Kyung was active in adding that the family isn't looking for money but are looking to send a message.
“This kind of thing should never happen again,” Kummi’s husband, Taichul Kim said.
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