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Story: GRAVE CONCERNS
Date: Aug. 7
What happened: The nation’s largest funeral services company, Service Corporation International, pitted two grieving families against each other by inadvertently selling them both the same plot at Skyline Memorial Gardens. Both families planned to bury their sons, who died tragically in young adulthood. Last year, SCI sued Paula Tin Nyo, who bought the plot in 2021. The company acknowledged its error but said it had previously sold the plot to another family in 2019. SCI wanted Tin Nyo to remove her son’s remains for the benefit of the first purchaser—but, in a twist, refused to name that family. Oregon’s constitution says court proceedings, including the identity of parties, should be public in nearly all cases.
What’s happened since: After our initial story, WW petitioned Multnomah County Circuit Judge Christopher Ramras for the name of the first purchaser. Ramras ordered attorneys for SCI to name the family or withdraw their case. In September, Tin Nyo’s attorneys at the Tonkon Torp firm removed any doubt about the identity of the first buyer of the plot by introducing into evidence the contract that family signed in 2019. The contract shows that Martin and Jane Reser bought the plot for their late son, Alexander, who died that year at age 30 of a fentanyl overdose. (The family is best known as the proprietors of potato-salad giant Reser’s Fine Foods.) Since then, attorneys for SCI have sought sanctions against the Tonkon Torp lawyers representing Tin Nyo and to have them disqualified from the case, on which they are working pro bono. The Tonkon Torp lawyers filed a counter-motion for sanctions against SCI’s attorney at the Lane Powell firm, and accused SCI of “genuinely shocking forms of misrepresentation to perpetuate a scorched-earth campaign against Ms. Tin Nyo.” The parties are due in court for a hearing Jan. 10. Attorneys for SCI, Tin Nyo and the Resers did not respond to requests for comment.