Man sues Forest Lawn for allegedly putting his mother’s burial marker on wrong grave

A man sued Forest Lawn Mortuary and Forest Lawn Memorial Park Association on Thursday, alleging that a misplacement of his mother’s burial marker within the Hollywood Hills cemetery led him to visit the wrong gravesite for four years until he was informed of the error during another family member’s funeral service in April.

The man ‘s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges fraud, breach of contract, negligence ad negligent infliction of emotional distress. He seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

“Plaintiff was shocked, devastated and overwhelmed upon learning that the family had been grieving and visiting the wrong site for plaintiff’s mother for approximately four years,” the suit states.

A Forest Lawn representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The plaintiff bought two burial plots in September 2008 and four years later asked that his parents release those two plots to allow the family to have six such contiguous plots, according to the suit. The man’s mother died in July 2021 of the corona virus and she was buried the next month in one of the purchased plots, the suit states.

The plaintiff bought a monument for his mother’s burial site in September of that year. But he and his family did not immediately know that the headstone was installed on the wrong burial site, causing them to visit his mother at the long location until April of this year, when his father died. At that time a Forest Lawn representative told him that although his mother was buried in the correct plot, her headstone was installed elsewhere, according to the suit.

The monument was moved to the correct site, but the mistake had caused the plaintiff to suffer significant emotional distress, including shock, grief and ongoing mental anguish from having grieved and visited the wrong site for his mother, the suit states.

“But for the passing of plaintiff’s father and the viewing service, plaintiff would have continued visiting the incorrect gravesite, unaware of the defendant’s error,” according to the suit, which also states that the plaintiff has suffered economic losses.