Auto Shop Wins $1.9 Million in Suit Over Crematorium Odors

A jury Monday ordered a Laguna Beach funeral home to pay nearly $1.9 million in damages to the owners of an auto-repair shop who complained that the odor of human flesh from the mortuary’s crematorium was damaging their business.

The funeral home, McCormick Mortuary, was ordered in a Fullerton court to pay $1.075 million in punitive damages and $820,000 in compensatory damages to Larry and Virginia Hunt, owners of Larry Hunt Automotive Co., located next door to the mortuary.

Mortuary officials could not be reached for comment.

In a lawsuit filed in 1985, the Hunts complained that the odor of burnt flesh, smoke, greasy dust and ash from the crematorium was making employees nauseated and unable to work.

“It ruined eight years of my work life,” Larry Hunt told The Times in a telephone interview Monday night.

Hunt said workers in his 35-year-old business often abandoned areas at the rear of the shop, near the crematorium, as the fumes became more intense. After two years of pleading with the mortuary’s owners to control the odors, Hunt said, the lawsuit was filed.