Tulare Public Cemetery District in hot water over 2006 plot mix-up

Two grieving daughters filed suit early this year against the Tulare Public Cemetery District, alleging that the district buried their mother in a different location in 2006, placed her headstone in the incorrect location, and only discovered the error in 2023.

In the filing, Ena Vasquez & Yvette Hernandez allege that the burial plot mix-up caused “hospital and medical expenses,”  “general damages,” and “trauma and emotional distress.”

They are suing for general negligence, intentional tort, and fraud and asking the court for compensatory and punitive damages.

Plaintiffs Vasquez & Hernandez are being represented by Victor M. Perez, a Visalia attorney.

The case was filed January 29, 2024 and according to the lawyer’s office a settlement conference is scheduled later in November.

The cemetery district held a special board meeting Thursday, November 7 to discuss the lawsuit with legal counsel in closed session. No action was reported.

“Deprived from honoring the grave of their mother for 17 years”

According to the lawsuit, current Tulare Public Cemetery District manager Clara Bernardo sent a private message on April 25, 2023 to Vasquez asking her to call the district office.

On calling the office, Vasquez was told she had not actually been grieving at the burial site of her mother, Eufracia Hinojos, over the last 17 years.

“Ms. Bernardo then proceeded to inform Plaintiff that there had been an issue with Plaintiff’s mother’s burial site of 2006. Ms. Bernardo informed Plaintiff that her mother, Eufracia Hinojos, was not buried where, for 17 years, Plaintiff’s family and loved ones believed had been buried and headstone was placed. Further, Ms. Bernardo informed Plaintiff that the headstone for her mother was not actually where her body was buried,” the suit reads.

The following morning Vasquez and her sister Hernandez, went to the cemetery to figure out exactly what Bernardo was trying to say.

“While at the site, Plaintiff, Yvette Hernandez, witnessed when TCD workers carelessly pulled the headstone out the burial plot where Plaintiffs were negligently and deceitfully told their mother had been buried for 17 years. Additionally, Plaintiff, Yvette Hernandez, witnessed the empty plot of where their mother was claimed to be buried for those 17 years, and when TCD workers used a “stick” to “poke” around the cemetery searching for the correct location of their mothers casket,” the suit reads.

“After the TCD workers used a ‘stick’ to “poke” the ground in search of their mother’s casket, Plaintiff’s were told ‘there is a Casket here, so this must be your mom and we are going to put her headstone here,’” the suit claims.

The Plaintiffs are including charges of fraud because the district promised to place their mother’s headstone at the grave of their mother, according to the suit.

The Plaintiffs were visiting “a grave that was not their mother’s for 17 years, and unawarely failed to visit and honor their mother’s actual grave for 17 years.”

The complaint continued, “Plaintiff’s have suffered personal injuries and have been deprived from honoring the grave of their mother for 17 years.”

Though it would not have helped in this case, TPCD has set up a Verification Committee to ensure that bodies are put in the correct grave, an issue that has proved challenging for the cemetery over the last 30 years.

Alberto Aguilar, a former trustee, claimed that a meeting of that committee hadn’t been held in over a year.

“There hasn’t been a verification meeting in a year and a half and they are required to meet twice a year,” he said. “Board members are required to ensure records are correct.”