There are bad apples in every profession including people who for years were upstanding members of their community. Most people who make unethical choices don’t wake up one day and decide they will violate – in this case – funeral ethics. However, this case is an example funeral ethics gone way bad.
The story begins as follows:
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey filed a complaint against Gatens-Harding Funeral Home in Poca, West Virginia. The complaint includes the funeral home’s owners, Chad and Billie Harding, alleging a violation of the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act and the state’s Preneed Funeral Contracts Act. According to the complaint alleges those involved misappropriated money from consumers who were trying to prepay their funeral costs.
Amazing what was done (or allegedly done)!
“Funeral home allegedly made death claims to the insurance company, even though the individuals were not deceased at the time,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said. Morrisey released the results his audit did on the funeral home after a lawsuit was put forward by Homesteaders Life Company. The Attorney General claims that the funeral home and its owner, Chad Harding, falsified over 100 deaths to collect more than $900,000 dollars in insurance policies.
Attorney General Morrisey is pushing for up to $20,000 per incident in civil and punitive damages.
What Does Homesteaders Say?
Homesteaders says Chad Harding was charged with enrolling customers in HLC group life insurance designed to fund the subject funerals. The lawsuit alleges the funeral home cashed in 111 policies totaling more than $900,000. According to court documents, all of the policy holders were still alive at the time of the lawsuit. Crazy cause there’s no funeral ethics in play here!
But the Plot Thickens in this Funeral Fraud Case!
J. Michael Gatens III, the grandson of the man who started the Poca-based Gatens-Harding Funeral Home is suing the current owner who has been accused of racketeering related to the sale of more than 100 pre-need funeral arrangements, claiming that Chad Harding owes him $113,000 plus interest and never provided him the deed to a property in Winfield that was to be used as collateral.
One might ask where is this coming from? Isn’t there enough trouble for the Harding’s already. Yes!, but the deed to the funeral home property now might be tied up in federal court, where Harding and his wife, Billie, are being sued by Homesteaders, an Iowa-based insurance company. In January 2016 a US District Court Judge granted a pre-judgment motion filed by Homesteaders and put an attachment on the property which would allow the insurance company to sell it if the company wins the lawsuit.
According to a new report:
“Upon information and belief, the deed to the property described in the Promissory Note is subject to an Order of prejudgment attachment in Homesteaders Life Company v. Gatens-Harding Funeral Home,” Bowles Rice attorney Josh Johnson wrote in Gatens’ complaint.
On Thursday, Johnson said he couldn’t go into detail about certain allegations at this early stage in the case. He didn’t know the relationship between the two men and wouldn’t say what the debt was over.
Gatens lives in Alberta, Canada, the lawsuit states. He is the grandson of Joseph Sr. and Norma Lee Gatens, who started the Gatens Funeral Home in 1940, according to the funeral home’s website. The Hardings became the sole owners of the funeral home in 2004.
Gatens and Harding entered into an agreement in May 2014, the lawsuit states. A copy of a promissory note with both men’s signatures is attached to the complaint.
“Mr. Harding falsely and fraudulently represented to Mr. Gatens that he would provide Mr. Gatens with a deed to secure the debt,” the complaint states. “When Mr. Harding made these representations, he knew them to be false and these representations were made by Mr. Harding with the intent to defraud and deceive Mr. Gatens and with the intent to induce Mr. Gatens to provide the aforementioned sum.”
What a Mess! But more Important WHY?
To be clear I do not know any of the parties involved other than recognizing that Homesteaders is a fine company with a stellar reputation. What I do know as an ethics and fraud prevention expert, is that something in the Harding family went terribly wrong to create such an unethical and illegal mess. Where was the idea of Funeral Ethics?
When life gets out of balance – usually caused by one of three things: money, relationships or health – people will seek the course of least resistance to resolve the imbalance. If I were a betting man (and I’m not) I’d suggest that the creation of success led to the illusion of success and to fund that illusion the cashing in of the pre-need seemed a great idea. RATIONALIZATION: Best Guess: when the individual dies we’ll provide the funeral then out of future profits.
The problem is however, Every Choice Has A Consequence!
News reports once again state:
“We didn’t want [Harding] to dissipate or dispose of any of his assets before we could have a jury hear the case. We thought the extraordinary action of getting a prejudgment attachment would prohibit him from doing that,” said Alex Macia an attorney for the insurance company. “We believe we have a very strong case of fraud and we wanted to make sure there was something there to satisfy the judgment we would obtain against [Harding].”
In September, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey filed a lawsuit against Gatens-Harding in Kanawha County Circuit Court alleging an audit had determined at least 108 West Virginians had been affected by a scheme similar to that outlined in the lawsuit filed in federal court. The Hardings have denied all of the allegations.
What’s the outcome? Well one is innocent till proven guilty, but based on past history, I suspect the writing is on the wall. The Hardings will face prison time for a clear violation of funeral ethics in my opinion.
YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME!
No prison time. A little slap on the wrist. He is still in business and nothing else will be done. Ethics you say? He has none. I wish I had a pre-arrangement with him so I could walk in there and remove it.
Why didn’t the West Virginia Board of Funeral Service Examiners revoke his license? Chad Harding was a member of the WV Board of Funeral Service Examiners and appears to have received special treatment.