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Mother Wins Wrong-Body Lawsuit : Found Other Corpse in Son’s Casket; Jury Awards $72,500

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Times Staff Writer

A Garden Grove woman who went to a funeral home to view her son’s body and found the wrong corpse in his casket won a jury verdict Thursday of $72,500 for the continued nightmares and flashbacks she has suffered since the incident.

Happy with the verdict and relieved the suit is over, Vera M. Durr, 63, said the visions are “horrible.”

Although her son--a hero in the Navy--died three years ago, Durr still breaks down when she recalls the first time she viewed his body in the funeral home. She cried during her testimony Monday when the trial started, and she sobbed quietly when lawyers talked Wednesday during closing arguments about the mix-up in bodies.

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Vera Durr’s Nightmares

“Mrs. Durr has a sense of vindication about the verdict, but it won’t make her nightmares go away,” said her lawyer, Christopher B. Mears of Orange.

Even defense attorney Robert J. Overzyl of Los Angeles recognized her pain and suffering, calling her “an extraordinary woman.”

Overzyl said the defendant, Humphrey Mortuary of San Diego, probably would not appeal the verdict and would pay the judgment, which, with interest and costs, will be more than $80,000.

Humphrey Mortuary has filed a claim against the U.S. Navy to pay a portion or all of the damages, he said.

Petty Officer 1st Class Joseph A. Durr, 26, died when he tried to rescue two shipmates who were being overcome by freon gas while working on a refrigeration unit on the USS Bainbridge while it was docked in San Diego on Jan. 25, 1982.

The other two also died, and seven other sailors were injured in rescue attempts on the nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser.

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One or more employees of Humphrey Mortuary, which had a Navy contract at the time to embalm, prepare and ship bodies of dead naval personnel, picked up the three bodies apparently without realizing that toe tags on two of the bodies had Joseph A. Durr’s name on them.

Testimony at the trial, which began Monday, indicated that Humphrey failed to meet the standard of care in the industry by not verifying the identification of the bodies it was accepting.

With Durr’s wife and mother notified of his death, Humphrey sent what it thought was Durr’s body to Mettler Mortuary in Garden Grove, where funeral services were to be held. Durr’s wife, mother, twin brother and sister arrived for the first viewing and found another body in Durr’s uniform.

“I screamed and yelled, and my daughter screamed and yelled,” Vera Durr said. “His wife yelled, ‘I knew he wouldn’t leave me with two children.’ Naturally, I thought it was a big mistake. I thought he was in a hospital.”

But there was no mistake that Durr was dead. Humphrey Mortuary took the wrong body back and shipped the right body the next day. The other two bodies had not been sent home yet.

Vera Durr, whose husband died in 1979, could not shake the vision of the other sailor in her son’s casket. She said she has had nightmares several times a week and flashbacks during the day nearly as often. Attorney Mears likened the emotional problems to the post-traumatic stress syndrome suffered by a number of Vietnam War veterans.

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Tries to Keep Busy

“I try to keep myself busy because when I sit and think, I see (the wrong body in the casket) and it’s a horrible thing,” Durr said. “When I go into one of these things during the day, I call a friend and say, ‘Just talk to me.’ Sometimes, though, I just have to handle it alone.”

Psychiatric testimony indicated that Durr would probably not be helped by therapy, the lawyers said.

Overzyl had tried to shift the blame to the Navy, which had put the toe tags on the bodies. He said jurors interviewed after the verdict was announced told him they would have found the Navy liable if it had been in the case.

Joseph Durr’s wife, who has remarried and is living in South Carolina, and children settled a legal action against the Navy out of court. Vera Durr, who was not an heir for purposes of a wrongful death claim, filed a claim against the Navy for the mix-up of bodies, but it was dismissed, Mears said.

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