NORTHAMPTON — In the first of eight lawsuits to be decided against embattled funeral home owner William W. Ryder, a Hampshire Superior Court jury awarded $150,000 in damages to three siblings following their veteran father’s botched burial.
Jurors awarded $50,000 to each of the three grown children after deciding that Ryder, who ran the former Ryder Funeral Home in South Hadley until its demise in May 2014, mishandled the remains of Lucille and Lincoln White Sr. of Granby.
The lawsuit also named Jay R. Czelusniak and the Czelusniak Funeral Home of Northampton as defendants, but the jury determined they were not liable.
Czelusniak’s attorney, Mark A. Aronsson of Boston, previously argued that Czelusniak did not lie or mishandle the remains and tried his best to locate them as he tried to wrap up operations at Ryder Funeral Home.
Trial Judge Mark Mason may award further damages in the future should he decide that the defendants engaged in unfair or deceptive business practices. No ruling has been issued regarding the additional damages.
Citing the outstanding motion for additional damages, the plaintiffs’ attorney, Mary J. Kennedy of Springfield, declined comment Tuesday.
Ryder Funeral Home was shut down by local and state officials in May 2014 after regulators found several bodies in various states of decomposition and were improperly stored.
The White children — Lincoln E. White Jr. of Granby, Ann Marie Sapowsky of Ware and Kimberlee Felper of Grafton — originally requested that their parents’ cremated remains be combined in the same urn, according to the lawsuit. On the day of their father’s funeral, Ryder assured them that he had honored the request. However, family members followed up with the crematory some time later and learned that Lincoln White Sr.’s remains were not picked up until two days after his funeral.
Additionally, the complaint alleged that Czelusniak fraudulently represented to the Whites that the remains in the grave were those of their parents, and that he failed to search for the remains in the funeral home and then later oversaw the exhuming of the remains without notifying or seeking permission from the family. The plaintiffs were seeking unspecified damages.
Family members paid about $5,935 for White Sr.’s funeral, wake and burial services, according to the suit.
Reached by phone Tuesday, Lincoln White Jr. declined to comment on the case.
Ryder also stands accused of criminal charges, having pleaded not guilty in Hampshire Superior Court to more than five dozen counts of larceny greater than $250 as well as several counts of improper disposition of a human body.
Ryder allegedly embezzled roughly $375,180 from 70 customers through prepaid funeral arrangements he accepted between 2001 and 2014.
Michael Majchrowicz can be reached at mmajchrowicz@gazettenet.com.