La Crosse, Wis., woman not entitled damages from broken casket

LA CROSSE - A Wisconsin state appeals court said a La Crosse County woman is not entitled to damages for watching her late husband’s casket fall to the ground while it was being carried.

Chrystal Ulrich filed a lawsuit after seeing a handle break on her husband’s casket, as it was going from a hearse to a burial site. The Fourth District Appellate Court in Madison agreed that Ulrich suffered “genuine and understandable” emotional distress.

But to win such a lawsuit, the court said the plaintiff would have had to see something that caused a severe or fatal injury – and that didn’t happen because the victim was already dead. Ulrich sued the funeral home, the maker of the casket, its distributor, and an insurance company.

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