Law firm exhumes remains at Menorah Gardens today - irregularities found

Law firm exhumes remains at Menorah Gardens today - irregularities found

Ted Leopold, attorney and partner in the law firm of Ricci~Leopold as well as a team of experts were onsite at Menorah Gardens Cemetery - 9321 Memorial Park Road - Palm Beach Gardens today. Leopold as well as forensic and other experts worked together to exhume the remains of Louis and Clara Feinberg, Ben Kay and Arthur and Leonora Berenberg. The families of each of these deceased individuals are suing Menorah Gardens and Service Corporation's (SCI) its parent company.

More than 60 area families represented by Ted Leopold and the firm of Ricci~Leopold, P.A., have filed suit against Menorah Gardens SCI.

This morning irregularities were found in examining both records including those of the Menorah Gardens and even the State appointed examiner. The remains of Ben Kay are no less than two feet away from where the grave is supposed to be and his marker is over an empty grave. We are still examining documents on the remains of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Berenberg. In the case of Louis and Clara Feinberg the family has learned this morning that the graves were in the correct place and for the most part undisturbed. However, the emotional and physical toll that this has taken on their daughter, Barbara Clark has been enormous.

The civil suit that Ricci~Leopold, P.A. has filed on behalf of the more than 60 families states a number of claims against Menorah Gardens/SCI which include secretly breaking and opening burial vaults and dumping remains in a wooded area where they may have been consumed by wild animals; burying remains in locations other than those purchased by families; crushing burial vaults in order to make room for other vaults; burying remains on top of the other remains rather than side-by-side; secretly mixing body parts and remains from different individuals' secretly allowing plots owned by one party to be occupied by a different person; secretly allowing graves to encroach on other plots; selling plots so narrow that the grave could not accommodate industry standard burial vaults; desecrating graves and markers, while failing to exercise reasonable care in handling the plaintiff's loved ones remains.

Most recently Leopold filed amended complaints with the court in both Palm Beach and Broward counties on behalf of a number of families asking for claims for punitive damages to be added to a number of the matters. Families believe that a clear message of punishment should be sent to Menorah and SCI for what has occurred here. There continued lack of response in providing honest answers and resolution to these cases, as well as the stress they have put on these families needs to be addressed by the courts on a number of levels. There are dozens of families that still have no clear answer as to the disposition of their family member's remains, or if the grave sites they purchased are available. It takes incredible amounts of time, cooperation, coordination, and some real candor of behalf of Menorah Gardens and SCI to accomplish each one of these gravesite examinations and exhumations.