BROOKLYN (CN) - A Buddhist family claims in court that a funeral home wrongly cremated their mother, denying them a chance to perform a pre-burial cleansing ceremony and causing her to be lost in a "perpetual state of limbo" and unable to reach Nirvana in the afterlife.
Kok Chuen Yuen, Yue Chang Ruan and Yue E. Ruan claim the Wah Wing Sang Funeral Corp. in Chinatown mishandled their mother's body when transporting her to the Paccione Funeral Home, and failed to fully dress and apply makeup for an open-casket funeral, which will cause her to be "unrecognizable to anyone she encountered in the after-life."
They claim that they and their children are now cursed by their mother's soul, and that their mother will live in "poverty and shame" because a proper cleansing ceremony wasn't performed.
The family had consulted with a Buddhist monk, who used numerology when choosing the date of Jan. 24 for the pre-burial ceremony, which involves burning symbolic paper images of things like a house, money, cars and clothing, to ensure she'd have those things in the afterlife.
Wah Sing Sang funeral home had retained the Paccione Funeral Home to assist with the funeral arrangements, but Paccione Funeral mishandled her body and she was wrongly cremated on Jan. 22, the family says.
The family made arrangements to make an emergency post-cremation cleansing ceremony "in a desperate attempt to save their mother's soul."
The family says they met with Wah Sing Sang's Gordon L. W. Wong, who presented them with a pre-printed document in English and, without translating the document, advised the family, which does not speak English, that they had to sign it if they wanted their mother's remains.
Wong also told the family that they wouldn't have to pay for the original funeral arrangements, or for the costs associated with the cremation and efforts to perform a post-cremation cleansing ceremony.
But fearing bad karma, the family insisted on paying, according to the 64-page complaint.
After the emergency post-cremation ceremony, the family says, they discovered that the document they had signed was actually a sworn and notarized application for cremation permit. It also falsely stated that their mother expressed her desire to be cremated.
The family seeks damages for negligence and emotional distress.
They are represented in Kings County Supreme Court by Daniel Gregory with Stagg, Terenzi, Confusione & Wabnik.
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