CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Sunset Memorial Gardens is seeking the dismissal of a petition for contempt to enforce a consent decree filed by the 10th Judicial District Attorney’s Office in the Chancery Court of Bradley County.
The Aug. 25 petition states that Cecil Lawrence Inc. of Dallas, Ga., which owns the North Lee Highway cemetery, has not complied with several mandates stipulated in a Jan. 5 consent order, including failure to maintain a procedure for identifying complaints and a failure to respond and correct identified problems within its mausoleum or grounds in a reasonable amount of time.
This matter is separate from recent measures taken by the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, which has threatened a summary suspension of the cemetery’s license after inspections of Sunset’s mausoleum facility between July 31 and Aug. 7.
The District Attorney’s Office petition also states that “noxious odors are emanating from the crypts, and fluids are leaking from crypts at various times.”
“Their answer basically denies any kind of wrongdoing,” said Assistant District Attorney Drew Robinson.
The matter is headed to trial “with all due speed” and is undergoing a period of discovery in preparation for the trial, Robinson said.
The response, filed by attorney William Colvin on behalf of the cemetery owner, denies that odors in Sunset’s mausoleum “were due to the condition of the crypts, and denies that human fluids have leaked from the crypts.”
However, an Aug. 25 consent order filed by the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance says otherwise.
The mausoleum “smell is more likely than not that of decomposing human remains,” according to the consent order’s findings of facts, which cited the nature of the odor, the long timespan of the problem and “previous problems with the mausoleums which included seepage from one of the crypts.”
Consent order findings also cited an Aug. 21 informal conference with state officials in which the cemetery owner maintained that replacing the flooring would abate the smell, but agreed that such a solution would not eliminate the odor “if the smell were that of decomposing human remains.”
Mausoleum odors have been a problem for at least three years and the cemetery owner has “been disciplined multiple times” for failing to properly maintain Sunset Memorial Gardens, according to the consent order.
In addition to a $5,000 fine, the consent order also requires Cecil Lawrence Inc. to retain the services of a mausoleum construction expert to provide a report regarding any repairs believed necessary “to properly seal all crypts and prevent smells inside the mausoleum “that are offensive to the reasonable sensibilities of survivors of those whose remains are entombed” within. The consent order also calls for a timeline for making repairs and implementing those repairs within the proposed timeline.
A list of recommended repairs and an accompanying timeline are still outstanding matters at this time, said Kevin Walters, communications director for the Department of Commerce and Insurance.
“Time is of the essence,” said Walters, citing text from the consent order.
The state has received a copy a Sept. 4 site inspection performed by McCleskey Mausoleums of Buford, Ga., which was hired by the cemetery owner. The inspection says no evidence of leaks or odors were found.
Paul Leach is based in Cleveland. Email him at paul.leach.press@gmail.com.
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