Kentucky Jury Awards $165K in Funeral Home Fire

A southern Kentucky jury ordered a funeral home to pay $165,000 to a family after an employee misrepresented the condition of a body after the facility caught on fire.

The jury in Christian County Circuit Court heard a day and a half of testimony before handing down the verdict against Gamble Funeral Home in Hopkinsville.

The Kentucky New Era reported that funeral home employee Cletus Sivils didn’t tell the family of Thelma J. Buckner that her body had been burned when the building caught fire seven years ago. The family had the body exhumed, discovered the fire damage, and sued.

A second lawsuit stemming from the funeral home’s handling of the fire is pending in Christian County Circuit Court.