From the front page
of the Monroe Journal, February 17,
1920
Buford Man Sues Head
of State Insane Asylum. . . E.L. Melton Claims John McCampbell of Asylum and
Kirksy & Co., Embalmers, Were Negligent About Sending His Wife’s Body Home
A damage suit, alleging mental anguish, has been started in
Union County Superior Court against John McCampbell, superintendent of the
state insane asylum, and Kirksey & Company, embalmers of Morganton, by Mr.
E.L. Melton of Buford township. He asks for a verdict of $4,200. The action is
based on indifference and negligence displayed by the two defendants in the preparation
and shipment of the body of the plaintiff’s wife, who died at the asylum on
November 24, according to Mr. Melton’s attorneys, Messrs. J.C.M. Vann and W.O.
Lemmond.
The corpse of the deceased did not reach Monroe until the
morning of November 26th. It was expected to arrive the morning of
the 25th, and Mr. Melton had made preparations for the funeral
services to be conducted that day. As a result of this delay, “the plaintiff
was greatly harassed in mind, his feelings were hurt, his family was greatly
humiliated and mortified, and embarrassment and grief of his family and friends
which resulted from the negligence of the defendants contributed to the
plaintiff’s anguish,” says the complaint.
When Mrs. Melton was placed in the institution the plaintiff
claimed he instructed the defendant, Mr. McCampbell, to notify the Clerk of
Court in Union county in case of death, and to ship the body to Monroe. Expense
of the performance of this request was guaranteed by Mr. Melton.
Section five of the complaint states: “The defendant
telegraphed the plaintiff on the death of his wife, but carelessly and
negligently failed to ship the body, as he had agreed to do.”
Continuing, the complaint alleges: “The defendant, after
having the body turned over to Kirksey & co., undertakers, to be prepared
for burial, filed to give sufficient instructions to them for its shipment to
Monroe. They did not undertake to secure the necessary expense money from the
plaintiff, and the body laid in Kirksey & Company’s undertaking parlors for
two or three days.
“The plaintiff, worried over the delay in the arrival of the
body, called Mr. McCampbell over the telephone, who informed him in a rude,
insulting manner, that he knew nothing of the body. He then called up Kirksey
& co., through Mr. T.P. Dillon, and found that they had willfully and
negligently failed or refused for a period of two or three days to prepare said
body for burial. The body did not arrive until the morning of November 26th.”
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