Family turned up to private viewing to see the wrong corpse wearing their loved one's clothes
- Family of Nivina Cargill suing Smoot Funeral Services in Columbus
- Claim the home brought out the wrong body during the first viewing
- They then took five hours to find Cargill's body, lawsuit claims
- The body had been hastily made up with makeup and wrongly positioned
- Funeral home also bungled the obituary and misprinted names
- They are seeking $25,000 in damages
A family is suing an Ohio funeral company after their deceased relative's body was misplaced and the wrong corpse was displayed for a private viewing.
Seven family members of Nivina Cargill filed the lawsuit Monday against Smoot Funeral Services, which works out of Edwards Funeral Home.
The suit, filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, seeks more than $25,000 in both compensatory and punitive damages.
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Bungled funeral: The family of the late Nivina Cargill have filed a lawsuit against Smoot Funeral Services in Columbus, claiming they lost Cargill's body and bungled the viewing and obituary
Smoot Funeral Services is accused of losing Cargill's body at the time her family arrived at the home for the first viewing and took five hours to find it
Cargill's sister, Pamela Merritt, says the suit isn't about money, it's about ensuring what happened doesn't occur to another family.
Merritt says another woman was found in a casket wearing her sister's clothing when relatives arrived for Cargill's July 1 viewing.
She says the family waited five hours for staff to find and prepare Cargill's body.
According to the lawsuit, the funeral home haphazardly put makeup on Cargill's body and the body itself was positioned incorrectly, WCMH TV reported.
Upset: Pamela Merritt, Cargill's sister, said the family have not been able to grieve properly because of how the funeral services were ruined
Deceased: Nina Cargill died in June. Her family described her death as a shock and they are still reeling
The funeral home also incorrectly identified the family members of the deceased in the obituary, which wasn't issued until the day of the funeral, 10 days after Cargill's death.
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'Our already distraught family went through even more emotional turmoil due to the funeral home's mistreatment of my sister's body,' Mrs Merritt told the network.
'Smoot's countless errors have caused our family indescribable emotional distress and suffering.'
Smoot didn't respond to requests for comment.
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