In 2003, plaintiffs Veronica Clark, Andrew Gnoinski Jr., Virginia Lashoff, Charles Plumer Jr., John Plumer, Robert Plumer and Loretta Tierney learned that deceased relatives’ corpses had been improperly buried by employees of Memory’s Garden cemetery, in Colonie. Gnoinski’s parents, Andrew Gnoinski Sr. and Ramona Gnoinski, were supposed to have shared one vault, and the remaining plaintiffs’ relatives, Charles Plumer Sr. and Virginia Plumer, were supposed to have shared another vault. Ramona Gnoinski died in 1990, and she was properly buried. However, she was subsequently moved to the wrong vault. The remaining decedents were buried during a period that spanned 1997 and 2001. Ultimately, the plaintiffs learned that Ramona Gnoinski and Charles Plumer Sr. shared a vault. Meanwhile, Andrew Gnoinski Sr. and Virginia Plumer shared another vault. The plaintiffs claimed that the cemetery’s operator was aware of the errors, but that it did not disclose the errors. In March 2003, authorities discovered those errors and others. In September 2004, the state prompted correction of the errors.
Clark, Andrew Gnoinski Jr., Lashoff, Charles Plumer Jr., John Plumer, Robert Plumer and Tierney sued the cemetery’s operator. The plaintiffs alleged that the defendant negligently mishandled the corpses of their respective relatives, that it intentionally failed to disclose its errors and that it was grossly negligent in its operation of the cemetery. Robert Plumer’s claim was not pursued.
Plaintiffs’ counsel claimed that the cemetery was aware that the plaintiffs’ relatives were not properly buried, but that the errors were concealed by falsification of the cemetery’s records. They also claimed that Ramona Gnoinski’s remains were secretly moved to a vault that Charles Plumer Sr. occupied. They contended that the act was an attempt to resolve one of the burial errors.
The plaintiffs claimed that deceased relatives’ corpses were improperly buried. They also claimed that one corpse was secretly moved to a vault that was occupied by a non-relative. The plaintiffs sought recovery of damages for their emotional suffering. They also sought punitive damages.
The jury found that the cemetery’s operator was grossly negligent. It determined that the plaintiffs’ damages totaled $325,000, which included compensatory damages of $270,000 and punitive damages of $75,000.