The family of a New Jersey man who passed away from mesothelioma may finally bury his body two weeks after the funeral was held.
An order initially forbidding burial pending an autopsy on the body of Harold St. John was delivered to the funeral director and the St. John family on March 4, 2009, the day of the funeral. The order was requested by two of the numerous companies St. John and his family sued after he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer caused by asbestos exposure. Though treatment is available, a mesothelioma cure does not currently exist.
St. John worked in a family-owned auto-repair shop in the 1950s and `60s where he was exposed to asbestos that eventually led to his disease through the use of asbestos-contaminated products provided by numerous companies.
An appeals court reversed the initial order, denying the requests of Honeywell International and Chrysler Motor Corp., to have an autopsy performed on 67-year-old St. John to obtain lung tissue from his body to test to see if asbestos from their products caused his cancer.
The decision, released March 18, said that had St. John lived when the trial began, stated the “defendants would have gone to trial and defended themselves against the plaintiff’s allegations on the basis of the same evidence that is available to them now without a limited autopsy,” and noted the trial preparation was not impeded by the denial of the autopsy request.
The St. John family’s attorney stated the family opposes autopsies on moral and religious grounds and added that Harold St. John was also against autopsies.
Superior Court Judge Philip Paley felt the objections from the St. John family took precedence over the company’s request for an autopsy. The appeals panel agreed with Paley, stating that the defendants did not present “a sufficient basis from which to conclude that retrieval of lung tissue samples would likely lead to evidence of such significance that a limited autopsy should be ordered over the objections of Mr. St. John’s family.”
A statement from St. John’s wife and daughter released after the initial decision was reversed said, “Finally we heard this morning from our attorneys at around 11:30 that the order has been lifted and we can finally lay my husband and my children’s father to rest in peace. Our entire family feels in our hearts that this is a national victory for all sufferers of mesothelioma.”
St. John passed away February 28, two days before the civil trial of his lawsuit was set to begin. A private burial service will be held this week.
Additional information about mesothelioma and asbestos exposure may be found through the Mesothelioma Cancer Center.
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