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Boorman Certification of Questions
Boorman Certification of Questions
19 Pursuant to Rule 5 of the Nevada Rules of Appellate Procedure, this Court seeks
20 guidance from and respectfully certifies to the Nevada Supreme Court the following
21 questions of law that may be determinative of matters before this Court and as to which
22 there is no clearly controlling precedent in the decisions of the Nevada Supreme Court:
23 1. What relationship must a plaintiff have to a deceased person to assert a
24 cognizable emotional distress claim related to the alleged mishandling of the deceased
25 person’s remains?
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1 to indicate that the organs were not with the body. (Id. at 8.) Plaintiffs allege Beverley
2 altered the form by crossing out that indication and marking on the release form that the
3 organs were in a viscera bag and were released with the body to Funeral Service. (Id. at
4 8-9.) Plaintiffs also contend Funeral Service employees Allen and Arcineaux placed a sheet
5 inside Richard’s body to conceal the fact that his organs were missing. (Id. at 9.) Based on
6 these allegations, Plaintiffs brought the original IIED, NIED, and negligence claims, and
7 added claims for fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract,
8 conversion, conspiracy to intentionally inflict emotional distress, conspiracy to make
9 fraudulent misrepresentations, conspiracy to breach fiduciary duties, and conspiracy to
10 commit conversion. (Id. at 11-18.)
11 Defendants Clark County, the Coroner, and Beverley moved to dismiss or in the
12 alternative for summary judgment. Among other things, Defendants argued Plaintiffs other
13 than Richard’s mother lacked standing to pursue claims related to the handling of Richard’s
14 body because his mother is the only person with legal rights to the body. Defendants also
15 moved to dismiss several claims for failure to state a claim. Defendants argued Plaintiffs
16 failed to allege their emotional distress manifested in physical injury or illness to support a
17 NIED claim. Defendants also asserted Plaintiffs failed to allege what duty Defendants
18 owed and how they breached that duty to support a breach of fiduciary duty claim. Finally,
19 Defendants argued Plaintiffs cannot state a claim for conversion because a dead body or its
20 parts cannot be converted.
21 Plaintiffs responded by arguing the Court should follow a California Supreme
22 Court case which permitted family members beyond those with a statutory right to control
23 disposition of the body to assert emotional distress claims for the mishandling of a body.
24 Additionally, Plaintiffs argued this type of claim does not have a physical impact
25 requirement. Plaintiffs also contended it is an open question whether Nevada recognizes a
26 cause of action for conversion of a body. Plaintiffs further asserted a custodian of a body
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1 and its organs owes a fiduciary duty to family members to be truthful about what happened
2 to the body and its organs.
3 This Court issued an Order this date addressing these and other matters raised by
4 Defendants’ motion to dismiss. In evaluating the parties’ arguments related to Plaintiffs’
5 claims for emotional distress, conversion, and breach of fiduciary duty related to the
6 mishandling of Richard’s body, this Court concluded that no controlling Nevada authority
7 existed and the Nevada Supreme Court ought to determine these issues of first impression
8 under Nevada law.
9 As also set forth in the Order filed concurrently herewith, general Nevada tort
10 law permits a person to bring a cause of action for NIED for harm to a third person where
11 he is a bystander who suffers serious emotional distress resulting in physical symptoms
12 “caused by apprehending the death or serious injury of a loved one due to the negligence of
13 the defendant.” Chowdhry v. NLVH, Inc., 851 P.2d 459, 462 (Nev. 1993) (quotation
14 omitted). Thus, in a typical “bystander” NIED case, the plaintiff must show he “(1) was
15 located near the scene; (2) was emotionally injured by the contemporaneous sensory
16 observance of the accident; and (3) was closely related to the victim.” Grotts v. Zahner,
17 989 P.2d 415, 416 (Nev. 1999). The bystander must have suffered either a physical impact
18 or must present proof of serious emotional distress causing physical injury or illness.
19 Olivero v. Lowe, 995 P.2d 1023, 1026 (Nev. 2000).
20 Nevada has limited who may bring a bystander NIED claim. As a matter of law,
21 a person who does not share a family relationship with the injured party may not bring a
22 bystander NIED claim. Grotts, 989 P.2d at 416. A family relationship means relation by
23 blood or marriage. Id. “When the family relationship between the victim and bystander is
24 beyond the immediate family, . . . the fact finder should assess the nature and quality of the
25 relationship and, therefrom, determine as a factual matter whether the relationship is close
26 enough to confer standing.” Id. (footnote omitted). Immediate family means the first
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1 Improvement Co., 213 Cal. App. 3d 596, 604 n.3 (Ct. App. 1989) (“This is not an instance
2 of recovery being based solely on infliction of emotional distress, but rather the
3 respondents’ duties toward the close relatives of the deceased to handle the corpse
4 properly.”); Strachan v. John F. Kennedy Mem. Hosp., 538 A.2d 346, 352 (N.J. 1988)
5 (noting parents’ distress was not caused by harm to their legally dead child but arose from a
6 breach of duty owed directly to the parents). Consequently, some courts have done away
7 with the requirement that the family member be present or observe the mistreatment to their
8 loved one’s remains. See Christensen, 820 P.2d at 190-91; Contreraz v.
9 Michelotti-Sawyers, 896 P.2d 1118, 1122 (Mont. 1995).
10 However, courts that have eliminated the requirement that the plaintiff observe
11 the injury to their loved one have limited who may recover on such a claim. Some courts
12 restrict recovery to the person statutorily entitled to control disposition of the remains or the
13 person who contracted for the funeral services. See Morton v. Maricopa County By &
14 Through Maricopa County Bd. of Sup’rs, 865 P.2d 808, 812 (Ariz. Ct. App. 1993) (holding
15 siblings could not pursue interference with dead body claim because parent had statutory
16 duty to bury remains); Brown v. Matthews Mortuary, Inc., 801 P.2d 37, 42-44 (Idaho 1990)
17 (holding that absent physical manifestation of emotional distress, only spouse or next
18 surviving kin could pursue claim that funeral home sent the plaintiffs the wrong cremated
19 remains); Crawford v. J. Avery Bryan Funeral Home, Inc., 253 S.W.3d 149, 159-60 (Tenn.
20 Ct. App. 2007) (limiting recovery to party with statutory right to control disposition of
21 remains);1 Whitehair v. Highland Memory Gardens, Inc., 327 S.E.2d 438, 443 (W. Va.
22 1985) (limiting cause of action to party with right to possess the body).
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25 Crawford left open the possibility that family members who did not have the statutory right
to dispose of the body could assert a NIED claim if the offending act took place in their presence. 253
26 S.W.3d at 160.
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10 820 P.2d at 191. However, Christensen limited recovery against a funeral home and
11 crematory to “close relatives who were aware both of the death of a loved one and the
12 nature of the funeral-related services that were to be performed on their behalf.” Id. at 200;
13 see also Quesada, 213 Cal. App. 3d at 610 (limiting recovery to “relatives residing in the
14 same household, or parents, siblings, children, and grandparents of the victim” (quotation
15 omitted)); Guth v. Freeland, 28 P.3d 982, 990 (Haw. 2001) (adopting Christensen standard);
16 Contreraz, 896 P.2d at 1122-23 (close family members for whom funeral services were
17 intended); Carney v. Knollwood Cemetery Ass’n, 514 N.E.2d 430, 436 (Ohio Ct. App.
18 1986) (declining to define outer limits of who may bring a claim for disturbance of remains
21 mishandling of a dead body requires the plaintiff to establish physical impact or physical
22 manifestation of emotional distress. Some courts retain the traditional requirement. See
23 Guth, 28 P.3d at 988-89 n.6 (gathering cases). Others conclude that in the special case of
25 necessary. See id. at 988-89 (gathering cases). These courts often rely on the reasoning set
26 forth in Prosser and Keeton on The Law of Torts (1984), which states:
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8 Brown, 801 P.2d at 43 (quoting Prosser & Keeton on the Law of Torts § 54, at 362 (1984)
9 (footnotes and citations omitted)). Still other courts relax the physical impact requirement
10 only if the defendant’s conduct was willful or malicious. See Shults v. United States, 995
11 F. Supp. 1270, 1275 (D. Kan. 1998); Perry v. Saint Francis Hosp. & Med. Ctr., Inc., 865 F.
14 embalming service with whom the family members have contracted to perform services.
15 These courts have discussed the special relationship that arises between a party providing
16 mortuary services and the family. “Once a mortuary . . . undertakes to accept the care,
17 custody and control of the remains, a duty of care must be found running to the members of
19 “undertaking to provide mortuary services, the defendant had created a relationship between
20 itself and the family of the decedent by virtue of which an affirmative duty arose to avoid
21 harm to the family members.” Id. At least one court has found a similar duty for a county
22 coroner’s office. See Quesada, 213 Cal. App. 3d at 599-600, 603-05 (holding sister and
23 niece stated a NIED claim against county and funeral home where county misidentified
24 remains before transporting to funeral home, and both county and funeral home refused to
25 consider family’s protestations that body being buried was not their relative); see also Reid,
26 961 P.2d at 337-38 (stating county employees who appropriated and displayed autopsy
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1 photos to others without family members’ permission engaged in outrageous conduct but
2 held family members could not state a claim for NIED because they were not present when
4 However, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that
5 under California law, the United States military owed no duty of care in handling a
6 decedent’s remains during an investigation into the cause of his death. Sabow v. United
7 States, 93 F.3d 1445, 1458 (9th Cir. 1996). The Ninth Circuit specifically distinguished
9 into his death [is] different from mortuary services,” and “the U.S. Navy was under no
11 investigation.” Id.
12 California currently has three cases pending before the California Supreme Court
13 addressing the issue of what duty an entity like the coroner’s office owes to family members
14 with respect to human remains. In Conroy v. Regents of University of California, the lower
15 court found a university conducting an anatomical gift program owed no duty to the
16 relatives regarding handling of the body. 59 Cal. Rptr. 3d 661 (Ct. App.), review granted
17 by 169 P.3d 94 (Cal. 2007). In Perryman v. County of Los Angeles, the lower court found
18 the coroner’s office owed no duty to family members regarding handling of the remains. 63
19 Cal. Rptr. 3d 732 (Ct. App.), review granted by 171 P.3d 2 (Cal. 2007). And in Vasquez v.
20 County of Los Angeles, the lower court ruled the county coroner’s office owed no duty to
21 family members to preserve the body from decay. No. B192189, 2007 WL 2773847 (Cal.
22 Ct. App. 2007) (unpublished). The California Supreme Court has not issued a decision in
24 Nevada has not addressed any of these issues in the context of the mishandling of
25 human remains, and this case therefore involves numerous unresolved issues of Nevada
26 state law. For example, Nevada has not addressed whether such claims would be limited
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1 only to the person statutorily entitled to the remains, to the person who contracted for the
2 funeral services, to any family member who is aware of the death and for whom the funeral
3 services are intended, or to some other class of persons. Nevada has not addressed whether
4 it would require any such family member to observe the insult to their loved one’s remains.
5 Nevada also has not addressed whether such emotional distress claims must be
7 Nevada has not addressed whether such duties also run to a governmental unit such as the
8 county coroner, as opposed to a funeral service who contracts to perform such services on
10 In addition to these issues related to emotional distress claims, Nevada has not
11 addressed whether a plaintiff may pursue a claim for breach of fiduciary duty where a
12 coroner’s office mishandles a body. Nor has Nevada determined whether a cause of action
14 Nevada should have the first opportunity to address the important questions
15 raised by this case, including Nevada’s policy regarding treatment of human remains, the
16 extent of liability in relation to any such claim recognized, and the application of these
17 principles to a government entity like a county coroner’s office. The Court therefore
18 certifies the above questions to the Nevada Supreme Court. See Amaker v. King County,
19 --- F.3d ----, No. 07-35241, 2008 WL 3904694 (9th Cir. Aug. 26, 2008) (certifying to the
20 Washington Supreme Court questions regarding whether only those statutorily identified as
21 next of kin have standing to bring a tortious interference with a corpse claim; whether the
22 decedent’s sister had standing to bring such a claim; and whether Washington’s anatomical
26 Richard Leslie Francis Boorman; Billy Christian Boorman, a minor; Dean Alfred Boorman;
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3 formerly identified as Nevada Funeral Service; Steve Allen; Eric Arceneaux; Clark County;
6 John S. Rogers
1321 South Maryland Parkway
7 Las Vegas, Nevada 89104
9 Jonathan C. Capp
Capp & Marsh
10 4317 Silver Spring Way
Oceanside, California 92057
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Counsel for Plaintiffs
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Robert W. Freeman, Jr.
13 1060 Wigwam Parkway
Henderson, Nevada 89074
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Counsel for Defendants Nevada Memorial Cremation Society, Inc. and Steve
15 Allen
16 Laura Rehfeldt
Clark County District Attorney’s Office
17 500 S. Grand Central Parkway, 5th Floor
P.O. Box 552215
18 Las Vegas, Nevada 89155-2215
19 Counsel for Defendants Clark County, Clark County Coroner’s Office, and
Monique Beverley
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Defendant Eric Arceneaux has not been served as of this date and no attorney has appeared
26 on his behalf in this action.
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1 of the questions to limit the Nevada Supreme Court’s consideration of the issues.
2 V. CONCLUSION
3 Having complied with Nevada Rule of Appellate Procedure 5(c)’s provisions, the
4 Court hereby directs the Clerk of the Court to forward this Order and the Order on
5 Defendants’ motion to dismiss also filed this date to the Supreme Court of the State of
6 Nevada, 201 South Carson Street, Carson City, Nevada 89701 under official seal.
10 _______________________________
PHILIP M. PRO
11 United States District Judge
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