April 2016 – Page 2 – The Good Funeral Guide

Boxing clever

6 April 2016

Charles

9 Comments

Categories: coffins

It’s not just Donald Trump who gives Americans an undeserved reputation for dangerous lunacy. Restrictive practices in the US funeral industry have been doing that for years.

In Alabama the owner of a natural burial ground is currently fighting the state law that allows only licensed funeral directors to sell coffins. The burial ground owner, Sheila Champion, said: “I could make you a cedar chest and sell it to you all day long as a piece of furniture; however, if you call me and ask me to make you a coffin using the same pattern, I could be prosecuted.” – here

Fighting her corner for her is the fearsomely libertarian Institute for Justice which, in 2013, fought for the right of St Joseph’s Abbey to sell their monk-made coffins to the public. It took them 6 years – here.

Over in Poland the coffin maker Lindner – famous for its naughty calendars – has brought out a naughty flat-pack coffin and it’s (according to the Telegraph) been damned as unethical by the Polish Chamber of Funeral Homes on the grounds that “Treating a coffin like an ordinary piece of furniture or a DIY-cupboard from a shop undermines respect for the deceased.”

Here in the UK hardly an undertakerly eyebrow is raised any more if a client says they’re buying their own coffin on the internet. Some of them are paying more than the FD would have charged them. In Nottingham, AW Lymn charges nothing (zilch nada) for a cardboard coffin.

Last week here at the GFG-Batesville Shard, where we’re all working our butts off to impress the new gaffer, we received an email from someone who can’t get hold of a woodchip veneer coffin for anything like as little as £150. We’d like to help her, and anyone else who wants to buy an inexpensive veneer coffin. What’s the cost price of these nowadays? Sixty, seventy quid? Any coffin maker out there willing to keep us supplied, please get in touch.

First day in the new job..

1 April 2016

Fran Hall

21 Comments

Categories: Uncategorised

Fran

So the GFG has a CEO. Who’d have thought it!

With thanks to the lovely Barbara Chalmers at Final Fling for making the announcement today – see blogpost here.

Looking forward to good times at GFG Towers as we continue celebrating the best in funeralworld while keeping a watchful eye out for the less than worthy.

Onwards and upwards!

Not a Good Urner?

1 April 2016

Fran Hall

3 Comments

Categories: ashes, funeral directors

Guest post by Tim Morris

The House of Commons Work & Pensions Committee report published on 31st March contained evidence that a funeral director had refused to hand over the ashes of a deceased person to the family concerned until the funeral account had been settled. It should be noted that the ashes of a deceased person have the same status in law as the body of a deceased person, both being the ‘remains of a deceased person’. This is amplified in law in England & Wales in respect of exhumation as lawful authority, via Faculty from the Church of England or license from the Ministry of Justice to exhume, is required in respect of exhumations of both ashes and the body of the deceased.

In the Court of Appeal in Hunter [1974] Q.B. 95 CA (Crim Div) it was held that:

…if it is a crime for the person responsible for burial to prevent it, there is no reason for regarding the act of a stranger in preventing burial as any less reprehensible. We think that in this connection burial means lawful and decent burial. A ‘stranger’, in this context, could include an undertaker. Therefore, whilst there is no direct duty upon an undertaker [funeral director] to dispose of a body after death (that duty lies with the administrator the deceased’s estate, the local authority or hospital), undertakers and any other ‘stranger’ have a duty to not prevent the lawful and decent burial of an individual.

Surely it would not be in the interests of a funeral director to withhold access to ashes as it is unlikely that a person that can’t or won’t settle an account would make an approach. Over time this could result in a cupboard overflowing with urns and caskets as there is no lawful mechanism for a funeral director to dispose of such ashes.

Similarly, grave deeds should perhaps not be made out in the name of a funeral director who then transfers the grave ownership to the family once the account has been settled? Is this not a contract debt that should be chased in the courts as payment of disbursements by a funeral director is part of a contract? The Local Authorities Cemeteries Order 1977 basically states that no [further] burial can take place in any grave nor memorial erected on any grave without the written consent of the owner of the right.

Whilst the majority of good funeral directors would not contemplate nor want to adopt any of the above it does pose a cautionary note for those considering them. Doesn’t it?