EL CAJON : Man Sues Over Mother’s Cremation
A Spring Valley man uncertain about the fate of his mother’s cremated remains filed a lawsuit Monday in San Diego Superior Court, alleging that an El Cajon crematorium burned and mixed together the ashes of unrelated bodies.
Michael L. Morneau filed the suit, prompted by the cremation of his mother’s body following her death in October.
The suit, filed on behalf of Morneau by San Diego attorneys David J. Strauss and Kevin J. McInerney, claims that business at the Neptune Society crematorium in El Cajon has grown so fast since 1983 that bodies are mishandled and remains are mixed.
The number of cremations at the Neptune crematory increased from about 1,500 in 1983 to 5,289 in 1991, the suit said.
The suit was brought on behalf of anyone who did business with the crematorium during that period, but it will be up to a judge to certify the case as a class-action suit.
Named as defendants were Leneda Inc., which owns the crematorium; Leneda owner Edwin H. Stivers; Neptune office manager Rod Hildebrand; and 14 mortuaries who refer business to Neptune.
“We do not do multiple cremations out here, never have, have never commingled ashes,” Hildebrand said Monday. “The allegations are false, and (the claims) will be proven false.”
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