{"id":1027,"date":"2015-08-10T13:49:50","date_gmt":"2015-08-10T13:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/?p=1027"},"modified":"2015-08-10T13:49:50","modified_gmt":"2015-08-10T13:49:50","slug":"600000-emotional-distress-verdict-overturned-by-new-yorks-highest-appellate-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/600000-emotional-distress-verdict-overturned-by-new-yorks-highest-appellate-court\/","title":{"rendered":"$600,000 Emotional Distress Verdict Overturned By New York\u2019s Highest Appellate Court."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Seventeen-year-old Jesse Shipley died in a <em><a href=\"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/boston-massachusetts-drunk-driving-oui-dui-dwi-lawyers-attorneys.php\">drunk driving accident<\/a><\/em> in early 2005.<\/strong>\u00a0 His family and friends mourned at his Catholic funeral and put him to rest at a Staten Island, New York burial grounds.\u00a0 <strong>Just two months later, the family was shocked to learn that the Richmond County Mortuary had removed and kept Shipley\u2019s brain without their knowledge or consent.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"400\" height=\"280\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mgyIoDq0TDc\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Shipley\u2019s former classmates from the Port Richmond High School in Staten Island were touring the autopsy room of the Richmond County Mortuary when they were shown a specimen jar containing a human brain.\u00a0 The jar was labeled \u201cas a result of drunk driving.\u201d\u00a0 <strong>They quickly realized that it was their friend\u2019s brain in the specimen jar.<\/strong>\u00a0 Many of the students reacted emotionally to the discovery.\u00a0 Upon returning home, the students told Shipley\u2019s sister what they saw, and she quickly informed her parents.<\/p>\n<p>Shipley\u2019s parents were under the impression that their son had been buried with all his body parts intact.\u00a0 <strong>They called their priest, who informed them that Shipley\u2019s burial was not proper without his brain.<\/strong>\u00a0 The mortuary returned the teenager\u2019s brain to the family, and the family held a second funeral and burial service for their son.\u00a0 Of course, the emotional trauma of suffering through the burial for a second time weighed heavily on the mourning family.\u00a0 <strong>They sued the city for damages, and were eventually awarded $600,000.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The case was appealed to New York\u2019s highest court, the New York Court of Appeals.\u00a0 <strong>The court overturned the jury award, finding that as a matter of law the family had no right to their son\u2019s brain.<\/strong>\u00a0 New York maintains a common law \u201cright of sepulcher,\u201d which means the right to immediate possession of a decedent\u2019s body for preservation and burial.\u00a0 But according to the New York Court of Appeals, the right of sepulcher does not include the right to the decedent\u2019s organs\u2014just the body itself.\u00a0 <strong>The dissenting judge, Judge Jenny Rivera, explained that the purpose of the right of sepulcher is to afford the family solace and comfort in the aftermath of a loved one\u2019s death by permitting a proper burial.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To speak with an expert <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/boston-massachusetts-personal-injury-information-lawyers-attorneys.php\">Boston personal injury attorney<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, please call 617-787-3700 today.\u00a0 You can also email the <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\">Law Offices of Gilbert R. Hoy, Jr. and Affiliates<\/a><\/em><\/strong> at <a href=\"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/boston-massachusetts-contact-gilbert-hoy-lawyers-attorneys.php\"><strong><em>info@gilhoylaw.com<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seventeen-year-old Jesse Shipley died in a drunk driving accident in early 2005.\u00a0 His family and friends mourned at his Catholic funeral and put him to rest at a Staten Island, New York burial grounds.\u00a0 Just two months later, the family &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/600000-emotional-distress-verdict-overturned-by-new-yorks-highest-appellate-court\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[29,28,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1027"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1028,"href":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions\/1028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}