Cemetery volunteers file lawsuit against billboard company

Washington Park Cemetery sits in suburban St. Louis, Missouri.  It is a cemetery that opened in 1920 and has not accepted new burials for almost three decades according to this article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Wanda Brandon is among a group of volunteers who tend to the cemetery.  She has filed a lawsuit against DDI Media of St. Louis to remove the six lighted billboards that stand on metal poles above the cemetery along Interstate 70.

According to the article, the billboards are technically on property owned by DDI Media as in the 1980’s the company acquired a slice of property from the former owners of the cemetery.

Brandon’s lawsuit which seeks no monetary damages suggests that the billboards “disrupt the peace, beauty, serenity and noncommercial nature of the cemetery.  They defile and divest the cemetery of its sacred nature,” it also reads.  The billboards have also been called disrespectful.

Funeral Director take:  This is an interesting lawsuit in that no monetary damages are asked for.  You cannot fault Ms. Brandon’s motives in wanting a cemetery to be a respectful and dignified place.

What I find interesting however, is how would the cemetery reimburse DDI Media for the loss of income if the billboards have to come down.  It appears, from the article, that DDI Media at one time paid the cemetery for this property and the fact that the billboards are there would indicate that there are no municipal prohibitions against the use of that property for this purpose.

My guess is that almost 40 years ago when DDI Media acquired the property and paid the cemetery, the cemetery put that money to good use.  Unless the cemetery has the ability to compensate DDI Media I cannot see Ms. Brandon winning her case, even with the most noble of intentions on her part.

I think the moral of this story, and something we can learn from, may be that when you sell property, for whatever the reason, you need to understand that the sale could come back to bite you for some unknown reason that you may not have thought about at the time of sale.  So, if your funeral home or cemetery has some “buffer” land that could be converted to cash. . . . think twice before doing so. . .because you have no idea of all the possibilities that land could eventually be used for . . . . and that use may not be in the best interests of your business.

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