Judge: Funeral home wrongly sold Lee Harvey Oswald's casket
EMILY SCHMALL, Associated Press

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A judge says the original casket in which Lee Harvey Oswald was buried belongs to Oswald's brother, not the funeral home that auctioned it off for more than $87,000.

Oswald's brother, Robert, had sued Baumgardner Funeral Home after it sold the pine coffin for $87,468 in 2010.

A judge on Friday ordered the funeral home to pay the same amount of money in damages to Robert Oswald, saying its conduct was "malicious and wanton."

Lee Harvey Oswald, accused of assassinating President John F. Kennedy, was fatally shot during a jail transfer two days after Kennedy's death. His body was exhumed in 1981, but the casket was too damaged for reburial.

The lawsuit says Oswald's family thought the casket had been thrown away but was actually kept in storage.

-- (c) Associated Press 2015-01-31

"A judge on Friday ordered the funeral home to pay the same amount of money in damages to Robert Oswald, saying its conduct was "malicious and wanton.""

I wonder if that's all the AP said. "Damages" can be actual damages as in the $87K plus interest to date, or they can be punitive damages also.

The phrase "the same amount of money in damages" could mean $87K, or it could mean $87K in actual damages of the sale price of the casket plus another $87K meant to punish and to serve notice to the public not to do anything like that. So did Oswald get $87K, or $87K + $87K?

There would be the $87K returned, but the terms "malicious and wanton" often trigger additional punitive damages.

Edited January 31, 201511 yr by NeverSure

Seriously ? This is what passes for news these days ? The casket of a dead guy gets dug up after being in the ground for 18 years. Sits in storage for some crazy reason for another 29 years, then gets auctioned off for 87k ? Who T.F. pays 87k for a 47 year old rotting casket that had a decomposing corpse in it for 18 years ?

Funny too how it seems the brother apparently didn't give a crap about the casket for all that time either, until it became worth something. Perhaps now that the courts have ruled that it belongs to him, the funeral company can charge him for the 29 year of storage and handling.

Lets see, $5/month for storage, handling, fumigation and odour control, with 0.5% (Cumulative) interest on the outstanding balance, over 29 years equals about, oh, $620,000.

Let's see how badly the brother wants the casket after getting that bill.

If the funeral home had stored the casket for 29 years then they should be able to to charge storage charges had they informed the family of the deceased that they were doing so and the charges were clear at the onset of storage, and had the storage charges not been paid then they could have sold it, but I do not think they did so.

my ex wife had some expensive furniture of ours in storage and defaulted on her payments for 90 days which waslong enough for the storage company to sell it off to pay for it;s storage costs. Iwas lucky as they knew my dad and called him. So I got it all for the storage fee and sold it for some good money. Don't tell my x. thanks

Seriously ? This is what passes for news these days ? The casket of a dead guy gets dug up after being in the ground for 18 years. Sits in storage for some crazy reason for another 29 years, then gets auctioned off for 87k ? Who T.F. pays 87k for a 47 year old rotting casket that had a decomposing corpse in it for 18 years ?

Funny too how it seems the brother apparently didn't give a crap about the casket for all that time either, until it became worth something. Perhaps now that the courts have ruled that it belongs to him, the funeral company can charge him for the 29 year of storage and handling.

Lets see, $5/month for storage, handling, fumigation and odour control, with 0.5% (Cumulative) interest on the outstanding balance, over 29 years equals about, oh, $620,000.

Let's see how badly the brother wants the casket after getting that bill.

It takes a very long time for the body to reach an unrecognizable state if it has been embalmed and there are no juices to 'rot' . My uncle was an embalmer. He says after maybe 60 + years the body just turns to a powder.

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Seriously ? This is what passes for news these days ? The casket of a dead guy gets dug up after being in the ground for 18 years. Sits in storage for some crazy reason for another 29 years, then gets auctioned off for 87k ? Who T.F. pays 87k for a 47 year old rotting casket that had a decomposing corpse in it for 18 years ?

Funny too how it seems the brother apparently didn't give a crap about the casket for all that time either, until it became worth something. Perhaps now that the courts have ruled that it belongs to him, the funeral company can charge him for the 29 year of storage and handling.

Lets see, $5/month for storage, handling, fumigation and odour control, with 0.5% (Cumulative) interest on the outstanding balance, over 29 years equals about, oh, $620,000.

Let's see how badly the brother wants the casket after getting that bill.

According to the story the family didn't know the funeral home had stored the casket and instead destroyed it. But your imaginative scenario is very artful.

There's a lot to be said for a simple cremation or to be a donor to medical research.

Edited January 31, 201511 yr by Prbkk

Mind boggles; who on earth would pay USD 87'000 for a coffin used in November 1963 by a guy who most likely was not even Kennedy's murderer. And even if he killed Kennedy, why spend that money and what to do with the coffin. As said - the mind boggles

maybe someone connected to SV40

google it