Reed-Gautier Funeral Home, Inc. v. State Bd. of Funeral Directors and Embalmers

• Citation: 295 So.2d 366
• Decision Date: 28 May 1974
• Docket Number: REED-GAUTIER,No. 74--225,74--225
• Parties: FUNERAL HOME, INC., a Florida corporation, et al., Petitioners, v. STATE BOARD OF FUNERAL DIRECTORS AND EMBALMERS, State of Florida, Respondent.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Florida (US)

Page 366

295 So.2d 366

REED-GAUTIER FUNERAL HOME, INC., a Florida corporation, et al., Petitioners, v. STATE BOARD OF FUNERAL DIRECTORS AND EMBALMERS, State of Florida, Respondent.

No. 74--225.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

May 28, 1974.

Richard G. Taylor, Miami, for petitioners.

Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., and Joseph C. Mellichamp, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for respondent.

Before BARKDULL, C.J., and CARROLL and HENDRY, JJ.

HENDRY, Judge.

This is a petition for a writ of certiorari from an order entered by the respondent board suspending the petitioners' licenses, imposing a $500 fine and assessing costs of the administrative proceeding against them.

The complaint filed against the petitioners by the board alleged that the Reed-Gautier Funeral Home, Inc., and particularly petitioner, Henry L. Reed, Sr., had violated, inter alia, Fla.Stat. § 470.12(1)(g), F.S.A., and Rule 21J--7.03(b) Florida Administrative Code, in that 'on or about July 19, 1973, he did refuse to release a dead human body, one Curtis Joy Skinner, Sr., deceased, to Katherine H. Puccio and Curtis Joy Skinner, Jr., daughter and son, respectively, of the deceased, upon their request; and made the payment of money a condition for the release of the deceased Curtis Joy Skinner, Sr., to Katherine H. Puccio and Curtis Joy Skinner, Jr.'

The facts pertinent to the charge and reflected by the evidence presented at an administrative hearing conducted by the board reveal that the deceased's son contacted the petitioner funeral home on July 16, 1973, the day his father died, by telephone from his home in California.

The son advised the petitioner, Reed, Sr., that he and his sister would fly from California on the day of the funeral, and Reed informed the son that the total cost of the funeral would be $495. The funeral home would have been reimbursed $250 from the Veterans Administration for the cost, with the family paying the balance. The cost reflected a minimal expense based on a no-asset demise.

Thereafter, in Miami, Reed met with the son and daughter just prior to the planned funeral services on July 19 and informed them that it was learned that their father had certain bank accounts totalling over $6,000, and he therefore was entitled to charge $1,000 for the funeral. The daughter strenuously objected to this increased charge and told Reed she would contact another funeral home and make other arrangements to have her father buried. To this, Reed responded that unless he was paid the $1,000, he would not release the body.

Mrs. Puccio then contracted her attorney, Susan Goldman, who also contacted Reed. She testified that Reed insisted upon payment of $895 before he would release the body.

Thereafter, a complaint was filed in circuit court on July 20, 1973 requesting an emergency hearing. A hearing was held before Circuit Judge James H. Earnest, who after ascertaining certain facts and placing a telephone call to Reed signed a court order to release the body without payment of any kind.

Mrs. Puccio was given a copy of the order by her attorney, and she proceeded to call the Van Orsdel Funeral Home, requesting them to meet her at the Reed-Gautier Funeral Home to receive the body. When she arrived at the petitioners' funeral home, Mrs. Puccio learned that Van Orsdel...