E.L. Melton Suing State Mental Hospital, Embalmers, For Negligent Treatment of His Wife's Remains, Feb. 17, 1920

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 26^th. It was expected to arrive the morning of the 25^th, 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 26^th.”