Body mix-up: Family sends lawyer’s letters to funeral services firms and workers demanding compensation, public apology

SINGAPORE — The family members of a deceased man whose body was wrongly cremated have served legal letters to four parties involved in the mix-up, demanding public apologies and compensation, TODAY has learnt. 

The letters, sent last week, have given the parties until Friday (Jan 17) to meet their demands.

Eleven relatives of the late Kee Kin Tiong had their lawyers serve these legal letters after the 82-year-old’s wrongful cremation, which occurred on Dec 30 and was first reported by Shin Min Daily News.

When reached on Thursday evening, funeral services company Harmony Funeral Care, one of the parties which were handed the letters, declined to comment on what their response will be. 

As of Friday evening, lawyers engaged by Kee’s family told TODAY they have received "holding letters" from lawyers representing three of the parties: Harmony Funeral Care, its employee who collected the wrong body and funeral parlour Century Products. The family's lawyers declined to elaborate on their next step. 

Kee was meant to undergo Taoist funeral rites but a staff member at Harmony Funeral Care mistook him for a different person, Chia Soon Chuan, and Kee ended up being wrongly cremated.

The legal letters were served to:

• Ms Harmony Tee, 26, who runs Harmony Funeral Care.

• Century Products Company, the funeral parlour that had been engaged to embalm or wash both bodies involved in the mix-up.

• Mr Nicholas Ang Kai, 23, the employee at Harmony Funeral Care who mistakenly collected Kee’s body from Century Products’ embalming room instead of Chia’s.

• Tan Khiam Soon Undertaker, the undertaker engaged by Kee’s family

STRONG WORDS FOR FUNERAL PARLOURS

In the letters of demand seen by TODAY, the family’s lawyers, Mr Patrick Tan and Mr Andrew Wong of Fortis Law, used strong language in the letters issued to Harmony Funeral Care and Century Products.

The letters note that despite the mix-up, both companies “did not apologise personally to the deceased and did not accord any respect to the deceased during the funeral”.

The family added in the letters that they were dissatisfied with the contents of a statement the two firms had jointly issued to the media on Jan 6, and that they were not consulted prior to its release.

That statement had included an apology to Kee’s family and stated: “We take full responsibility for the mistake and have reached out to Mr Kee’s family from the day the error was discovered to express our heartfelt apologies, and to make appropriate amends.”

The two companies had also said in the statement that they would continue to engage Mr Kee’s family and work to make it right by them as soon as possible.

However, in their legal letters, Kee’s family members said they were “completely appalled and outraged” by the conduct of the two companies.

“The utter lack of propriety, and the extent of disrespect and callousness that you have displayed in handling the affairs, is nothing short of an affront to any basic human decorum,” they wrote.

The lawyers gave the parties until Friday to fulfil three demands:

• Publish an apology to Kee and his family in all major local newspapers and on social media that is written in a manner that is acceptable to the family

• Give a written undertaking to Kee’s family to adhere to the set of proposed preventive measures they had devised in consultation with the National Environment Agency

• Offer a reasonable sum of compensation

They did not state the amount of compensation they are seeking, but said the sum has to be acceptable to the family to make up for their “pain and suffering”.

Speaking to TODAY, Ms Kee Poh San, the seventh of the elder Kee’s eight children, said the family plans to donate whatever amount they receive to charity, as their main wish is to hold the responsible parties accountable and ensure that no other family will ever have to face the same distressing experience.

The elder Kee is survived by his wife, six children and at least 20 grandchildren and great grandchildren. 

The lawyers stated in their letters that they were acting for Ms Kee, as well as the elder Kee’s four sons, two grandsons and four granddaughters.

FAMILY UNHAPPY WITH APOLOGY LETTER, REPORT OF MIX-UP

Ms Kee and her husband, Mr Derrick Ho, both 48, explained why they did not accept Harmony Funeral Care and Century Products’ joint apology.

In their version of events, Ms Tee acted unprofessionally when she arrived at Block 148 Rivervale Crescent on Dec 30, where Kee’s wake was supposed to be held.

Ms Tee had come to the wake with Mr Ang and several other Harmony Funeral Care staff members to break the news of the mix-up to Kee’s family. 

When the family asked who the boss of the funeral parlour was, Ms Tee pointed to another man, but they later established that it was not the truth, as Ms Tee is the founder of Harmony Funeral Care.

During that meeting, the family asked for an apology letter and a chronology of events leading up to the error.

According to Mr Ho, Ms Tee later asked what the purpose of the written apology was.

His response, he said, was: “It is a chance for you to apologise to us la!”

Mr Ho said Harmony Funeral Care provided them with the report outlining the chronology of events and the apology letter only three days later, and both were unsigned. 

Asked why they were unsigned, Mr Ho said the family was told by Harmony Funeral Care that these were only drafts. 

The family is also upset with Century Products, Mr Ho said, as the family was “rudely” turned away when they asked for closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera footage to verify if Kee’s body was indeed the one that was cremated at Hall 4 of Mandai Crematorium on the morning of Dec 30. 

Mr Ho said a staff member at Century Products raised his voice at the family and even challenged them to call the police.

The family had gone there as they managed to retrieve CCTV records from Mandai Crematorium but they were unable to see from the footage whether it was really Kee’s body that was cremated, as the coffin was sealed throughout the procedure.

‘THEY ARE ONLY PROTECTING THEMSELVES’

It has been three weeks since the mix-up, but family members feel they still lack a solid explanation as to how Kee, whom they had ordered to be dressed in a formal suit, could have been mixed up with Chia, whose body was dressed in a yellow T-shirt, Mr Ho said.

They are also vexed that they have not yet received signed copies of the letter of apology and chronology of events, even though Harmony Funeral Care and Century Products issued a joint statement to the media on Jan 6.

Mr Ho noted that the two firms said in the statement that this was “the most difficult time” in their companies’ histories.

“Who is (going through) a difficult time?” Mr Ho said. “They are only protecting themselves. Who is the victim, I wonder?” 

Ms Kee added: “They hope we can understand, but can they understand how we feel? It is difficult for them for the moment. It will be difficult for us for our whole lives.”

DAUGHTER SAYS ‘WE WERE UNFILIAL’

As she recounted to TODAY the family’s anguish over the mix-up, Ms Kee’s eyes welled up with tears. 

“We were unfilial,” she said.

“Before the body was taken (to Century Products) from home, we knelt down and called him, saying, ‘Father, you follow the undertaker to go make-up and change your clothes, and you’ll be back tomorrow.’ But it did not happen. What we promised him, we didn’t do.”

In Taoist belief, a deceased’s body should rest for at least three days before being cremated.

Ms Kee said she keeps seeing flashes of her father burning in pain, as the family was unable to undertake a ritual to call upon his spirit to run “out of the fire” just as he is being cremated.

“He was alone, leaving the world without anyone accompanying him even though he actually had many grandchildren and great grandchildren. It’s really painful, it bleeds inside your heart,” said Ms Kee.

Aside from his large family, Ms Kee noted that the late insurance agent, who sustained a 48-year practice until his retirement in 2018, had many former clients flying in from overseas to attend his wake.