Family wins lawsuit against O.C. coroner for mixup that lead to them burying wrong person

5 years after a household buried the improper physique as a result of a mixup on the Orange County Coroner’s Workplace, justice has been served.

Lower than a month after the trial in opposition to the coroner’s workplace started, a jury has dominated in favor of the household of Frankie Kerrigan who mistakenly held a funeral for a son who was nonetheless alive.

It was on Might 6, 2017, when Frank Kerrigan obtained the decision no guardian desires to obtain. His son Frankie had died.

Frankie, who was 57 on the time, suffers from psychological sickness and was residing on the streets, his household mentioned.

Frank Kerrigan was notified by the Orange County Coroner’s Workplace {that a} physique found in Fountain Valley had been positively recognized as Frankie by way of using fingerprints.

Devastated by their loss, the Kerrigan household held a funeral and Frankie was buried in a plot subsequent to his mom.

The one drawback? It wasn’t Frankie.

Simply days after the funeral, Frankie confirmed up on the residence of household associates who had simply served as pallbearers at his personal funeral.

The household had really buried one other man who has since been recognized as John Dickens.

For Frank Kerrigan, regardless of the reduction of studying that his son was alive, he now had to deal with the fact {that a} stranger had been mistakenly buried subsequent to his spouse.

The household filed a lawsuit in opposition to the County alleging that the mixup precipitated emotional stress and psychological anguish. On Tuesday, the jury introduced that they agreed and awarded the household $1.5 million.

Frank Kerrigan, Frankie’s sister Carole Meikle, and the household’s legal professional addressed the media Tuesday on the Orange County Courthouse after studying the decision.

“It appears like we’ve been vindicated,” Frank Kerrigan mentioned. “Its been a protracted exhausting battle.”

Meikle, Frankie’s sister, referred to as the whole saga merely “unbelievable.”

The problem that led to the misidentification of the stays turned out to be attributable to a problem with the fingerprint figuring out system and the truth that that they had used an outdated ID card to establish Frankie.

“This was a scientific failure throughout the O.C. Coroner’s Workplace as a result of they didn’t have any coaching or process for people of their workplace to grasp how their fingerprint system labored and even to substantiate {that a} physique was discovered with fingerprints,” mentioned James Desimone, the household’s legal professional.

The household accused Orange County of appearing negligently, Desimone mentioned, and the jury agreed.

“On the finish of the day, this jury needed to discover that Orange County acted negligently and we received on each reason for motion, which included intentional misrepresentation and negligent misrepresentation,” Desimone mentioned.

Within the years since they mistakenly buried the stays of John Dickens, the Kerrigan household has been in a position to switch his stays to the care of his family members, lastly bringing closure to each households.