The famous Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas, once the subject of a reality tv show, is now grabbing attention yet again with more than a dozen lawsuits filed against the business for the mishandling of remains.
The lawsuits, filed by seventeen different parties, accused the funeral home of negligent mishandling of corpses and ashes. Three of the lawsuits were filed in 2021, while the other fourteen were filed this year. According to NBC DFW, all of the lawsuits are seeking monetary relief of $1 million, according to NBC DFW.
Per the lawsuits, the Golden Gate Funeral Home is being sued for mental anguish after allegedly giving a family the ashes of the wrong deceased person, throwing away another deceased person’s ashes, and hosting viewings for family and friends with bodies in a decomposing state.
Run by John Beckwith Jr., the funeral home has made a name for itself when it comes to extravagant, non-traditional, and over-the-top funeral services.
The business was the central focus of TLC’s 2013 reality series, Best Funeral Ever, which ran for eight episodes, ending in 2014. The series took a look at some of the most over-the-top funerals requested by family members of the deceased.
In one episode, the family of an Olympic Gold Medal winner had their loved one’s coffin run a 100-yard dash before winning a medal.
Following the lawsuits, Golden Gate Funeral Home issued a statement to NBC 5 addressing the filings against them.
“Golden Gate is a family-owned and operated business that has provided care and services to the Dallas Community for generations. We will not comment on this pending litigation, except to state that we plan to respond to the allegations made against us and defend against these claims in a court of law.”