Legal News

Man?s Body, Held in Limbo by Lawsuit, to Be Laid to Rest

By Ashby Jones

It could have made an interesting plotline in Six Feet Under: A court stays the burial of a man who sued two companies for causing his fatal cancer so the company could perform an evidence-gathering autopsy on the man’s body.

Wednesday, a New Jersey appellate court upheld an earlier decision to remove the order, allowing the man — Harold St. John, a Spotswood, N.J., resident who died on Feb. 28 — to be buried. Click here for the Newark Star Ledger story; here for the appellate-court ruling.

The backstory: St. John, 67, died of what his family said was mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer that almost always strikes people who were exposed to asbestos. St. John contended his illness stemmed from his work on brake parts containing asbestos at his father’s Jersey City auto repair shop in the 1950s and 1960s.

Prior to his death, St. John sued a dozen companies, including Honeywell and Chrysler. St. John died days before his trial was slated to start. Honeywell and Chrysler moved to have a limited autopsy performed on St. John to take a tissue sample from his lungs.

Only thing: St. John’s family reportedly opposes autopsies on religious and moral grounds. A stay was placed on St. John’s burial on March 4 so a court could hear arguments on the issue.

On March 12, the lower-court judge found for St. John and his family, ruling that their opposition to an autopsy takes precedence over the need of the companies. The appeals court on Wednesday agreed with the lower court’s result, writing that said had St. John lived and the trial begun March 2, “defendants would have gone to trial and defended themselves against plaintiffs’ allegations on the basis of the same evidence that is available to them now without a limited autopsy. Thus their trial preparation was in no way hampered by the denial of their request for a limited autopsy.”

The St. John family said a private burial service will be held this week. “We are relieved that Harry St. John can finally rest in peace,” said the family’s attorney, Moshe Maimon.

Michael Palese, a spokesman for Chrysler, said “we are disappointed with the decision of the New Jersey (appeals court). We are considering our legal options.”

Palese also said Chrysler’s deepest sympathies are with the St. John family for their loss.

“At no time did Chrysler intend any disrespect to the late Mr. St. John or to his family at this difficult time,” he said. “Numerous epidemiological studies have refuted the link between automotive products and asbestos-related disease. We expect to prevail when this matter goes to trial.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 19, 2009 (boomark / email).