GALVESTON - A lawsuit arising from a local funeral home's apparent mishandling of ashes has come to a close, recent court records show.
Complainant Rose Woods-Brown and respondent Carnes Funeral Home filed an agreed motion to seal court records in relation to the July 2011 lawsuit.
As previously reported, Woods-Brown originally sued Carnes after the business incorrectly disposed the cremated remains of her late father to an estranged sibling.
The suit asserted the mix up in question was in violation of an agreement between both parties which rendered all business aspects relating to Spencer Woods's final wishes to Woods-Brown, a Spring resident.
Woods died on Feb. 3, 2011.
According to the original petition, the plaintiff went to Carnes approximately three weeks after to retrieve the ashes after going out of town only to discover that the defendant allegedly gave the ashes and the death certificate to her sister without her authorization.
The funeral home failed to return or even locate the ashes, the suit said.
Carnes refuted the allegations, stating Woods-Brown "has not been damaged in any manner whatsoever by (its) conduct."
The respondent recently attempted to reset the trial setting on the grounds its lead counsel is in the midst of her third trimester of pregnancy and is under doctor's orders not to travel, but Galveston County Court at Law No. 2 Judge Barbara Roberts denied its motion for continuance.
Woods-Brown and Carnes move to seal Woods-Brown's settlement agreement entered Aug. 5 citing a successful mediation session a few days prior.
They additionally desire for the agreement to be confidential, the four-page document says.
Cause No. 65,636