Widow Sues Cemetery After Husband's Coffin Dropped, Remains Exposed

A grieving widow is taking legal action after cemetery employees allegedly dropped her late husband’s coffin while lowering it into the ground, ejecting his remains as the man's horrified relatives looked on, according to a negligence lawsuit obtained by The Independent.

In a civil complaint filed June 2, Queens, New York, resident Zinule Nisha Ghanni, 82, says last year’s incident has brought about severe emotional distress, psychological injury, loss of appetite, loss of sleep, loss of enjoyment of life, and “pain and suffering of mind and body.”

The complaint places the bulk of the blame on Washington Memorial Park’s purported failure to “properly maintain its casket lowering device(s),” calling out the Long Island, New York graveyard for, among other things, “recklessness and carelessness” in laying 88-year-old Abdulla Ghanni to rest.

“[A]s a result of… failing to follow their own protocols, rules, policies and procedures in lowering Decedent Abdulla Ghanni's body into the ground, [his] body was caused to fall out of its casket and be exposed,” the complaint contends.

It further accuses Washington Memorial Park of ignoring “clear signs of equipment failure, more specifically the casket lowering device.”

Ghanni is also suing for loss of sepulcher – the right for the next of kin to exercise control over the deceased’s corpse – over having been “deprived of solace and comfort in the ritual of burial.”

Washington Memorial Park “deprived and interfered with Plaintiff’s right to dispose of the remains of Decedent Abdulla Ghanni's body according to her wishes, desires and beliefs when they failed to properly lower Decedent Abdulla Ghanni's body into the ground on May 28, 2025,” according to the complaint.

A Washington Memorial spokesperson did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment.

On May 27, 2025, Abdulla Ghanni “met his demise,” Zinule Ghanni’s complaint states.

Zinule and the family arranged for Abdulla to be interred the next day, at Washington Memorial, according to the complaint.

It says the cemetery then took possession of the body, but “improperly dealt with” it, resulting in the horrific graveside scene.

“Defendant's conduct was careless, grossly negligent, reckless, and wanton in their aforementioned duties,” the complaint continues.

The cemetery had a “duty and obligation to provide safe care and custody of… Abdulla Ghanni's body” while in its possession, and to “deliver… [the] body to the ground without incident,” according to the complaint.

However, it continues, Washington Memorial did not take “adequate and reasonable precautions, preventive measures, and/or remedial measures” to do so.

“[T]he dropping of the Decedent Abdulla Ghanni's casket into the ground[,] causing the … body to fall out and be exposed would not have occurred in the absence of Defendant’s negligence,” the complaint alleges, accusing Washington Memorial of negligent hiring, training, and supervision of its workers.

The complaint says Washington Memorial violated Article 42 of the New York Public Health Law, which establishes guidelines on the proper disposition of dead bodies.

Errors and mix-ups involving cemeteries and funeral homes have led to numerous lawsuits in the past.

In 2023, a Houston family sued a local mortuary service for allegedly mishandling their father’s remains, dropping Juan Mejia’s body down a flight of stairs, causing “denting and bruising” on his head, and trapping Mejia’s son’s arm beneath the gurney as he tried in vain to help.

The sequence of events caused “tremendous mental anguish” for Mejia’s family, and “even interfered with… [the] grieving process,” their complaint said.

That same year, a cemetery in suburban New York was sued after allegedly burying the wrong man in a plot meant for someone else. Before Clifford Zaner died at the age of 72, he told his daughters that he wanted to be buried in his favorite Led Zeppelin T-shirt and a pair of beloved black jeans, according to The Daily Beast.

But a stranger wound up in Zaner’s grave – as well as his clothes – and the mistake didn’t come to light for another three weeks, when the family was forced to endure a second funeral service and burial with the correct body.

In 2024, a Long Island family sued a nursing home and a funeral home for declaring their 82-year-old mother dead, zipping her into a bodybag, and sending her off to be embalmed while she was in fact still alive.

Similar cases of living people mistakenly pronounced dead have been reported in Australia, Brazil, Utah, Iowa and Detroit.

Zinule Ghanni is now seeking damages in an amount to be determined at trial, plus interest, legal fees and court costs.