The Arkansas Insurance Department has been flooded with calls this week concerning prepaid funeral benefits contracts held by a Jacksonville funeral home that surrendered its license last week, department officials said Thursday.
Since Monday, the Insurance Department has received approximately 700 calls about Arkansas Funeral Care and its prepaid funeral benefits contracts, Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr said in a news release.
"My staff is responding to this volume of calls as quickly as possible," Kerr said. "I appreciate your patience as we go through the records we seized on Monday. The department is taking a methodical approach to its investigation."
The department's Prepaid Funeral Division is acting as custodian of the prepaid contracts held by the funeral home, which voluntarily surrendered its license during a Jan. 23 meeting with the state Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors. The move came after a series of mid-January inspections at the business found several violations regarding the storage of bodies. Arkansas Funeral Care's founder and funeral director, LeRoy Wood, also surrendered his license during the meeting, along with the funeral home's crematory license.
The surrender of the licenses effectively closed the facility, which opened in 2006. Wood and the funeral home were also fined a total of $10,000.
Kerr signed an order Monday suspending the funeral home's permit to provide prepaid funeral benefits contracts. A hearing to consider permanently revoking the funeral home's permit to sell prepaid funeral benefits contracts is set for 10 a.m. Feb. 11 at the department's office at 1200 W. Third St. in Little Rock.
According to Arkansas Code Annotated 23-40-109(b), organizations selling prepaid funeral benefits contracts shall "file proof of ownership of an establishment which is in the business of providing the funeral goods or services to be contracted for" and the establishment must be "duly authorized and licensed to do such business."
Alice Jones, public information manager with the insurance department, said that calls about prepaid funeral benefits contracts with Arkansas Funeral Care would be returned. Calling the volume of calls "highly unusual," Jones said that the department added "some staff from the finance division [Thursday] to return some of the calls so that people would not have to wait."
Families with prepaid funeral benefits contracts at Arkansas Funeral Care with pending death claims or who might have a death claim on or before Feb. 11 are instructed to contact the Prepaid Funeral Benefits Division for assistance.
Jones said the department has dealt with funeral homes closing in the past or running out of money to cover the cost of prepaid funeral benefits contracts, but the "circumstances are a little different with this one."
Department officials said there was still no firm count on how many prepaid funeral benefits contracts Arkansas Funeral Care held, but they were confident the department would have an accurate count after an audit and before the Feb. 11 hearing.
The news release said that the department at this time "does not feel the policies are in jeopardy."
Two civil lawsuits have been filed against Arkansas Funeral Care this week, the latest one being filed Tuesday in Miller County Circuit Court by Chris and Justin Rowell, the sons of Melinda Rowell, a 49-year-old resident of Texarkana who died Jan. 13 in Little Rock.
According to the lawsuit, after Melinda Rowell's death, the two brothers chose Arkansas Funeral Care to perform their mother's cremation because of the funeral home's "close proximity to UAMS Medical Center," where she died.
When Chris Rowell went to Arkansas Funeral Care to sign a contract for the cremation, an employee told him that "the crematory was 'very busy,' but that his mother's cremation would be completed the following week," the lawsuit states. A visitation and memorial was held for Melinda Rowell in Texarkana on Jan. 18, with a graveside service planned in Ruston, La., after the receipt of Melinda Rowell's remains.
On Jan. 22, Chris Rowell was contacted by state authorities and informed that "Arkansas Funeral Care would no longer be able to perform his mother's cremation and that he would need to find another funeral home or crematory to take possession of his mother's remains and perform the cremation," according to the lawsuit.
"When he inquired as to the current status of his mother's remains, he was informed that the 'process had not been started' (even though nine days had since passed)," the lawsuit states.
The brothers learned through media reports that Melinda Rowell's body was one of 31 bodies removed by authorities Jan. 21 when the state board temporarily suspended Arkansas Funeral Care and Wood's licenses after the board reviewed a report from its inspector about the conditions of bodies being stored at the funeral home.
"Since learning of these reports, [the brothers] have fallen into a state of emotional shock and have experienced severe emotional distress and grief," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit accuses Arkansas Funeral Care and Wood of negligence, negligence under state law governing funeral homes, outrage and unlawful mutilation of human remains.
Besides the funeral home and Wood, the lawsuit also names Arkansas Funeral Home embalmer Edward Snow, employee James Richardson, and company owners Rod Wood, Boyce Penn, Carol Penn and Wayne Stover as defendants, and accuses them of negligent supervision.
The lawsuit seeks compensation for mental anguish, severe emotional distress, depression and anxiety, along with exemplary damages.
The first lawsuit against Arkansas Funeral Care and Wood was filed Monday in Pulaski County Circuit Court on behalf of the widow and mother of Kenny Alton Smith, a 53-year-old man who died Oct. 30.
The lawsuit alleges that before his funeral Nov. 8, Smith's body was "severely neglected and abused, not refrigerated and left to decompose" for three days.
Smith's body was clearly decomposing, embalming fluid was present, and a "revolting and obnoxious" odor escaped when a funeral home employee allowed Smith's widow, Cheryl Cross-Smith, to open her husband's casket on the day of the funeral, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit accuses the funeral home and Wood of civil negligence, outrage and negligence under state law governing funeral homes and breach of contract.
Metro on 01/30/2015