No doubt coffins are heavy. But it’s probably easier to carry them when you are sober! As reported by The Local:
Two sisters are claiming damages [20,000 kronor ($2,895 US] from a firm of funeral directors after their father’s coffin was plunged ungracefully into a grave by undertakers unsteady on their feet.
During the funeral, which took place in February 2008, they claim a number of undertakers were clearly drunk while being in charge of the coffin.
Not cool.
As they approached the grave they are reported to have lost their grip which resulted in a heavy fall into the ground with the coffin landing on its side.
Having earlier been close to overturning the coffin whilst in the church, it was the final blow in a number of incidents the grieving sisters list in a summons sent to Södertörn district court in Stockholm. “Both daughters were in chock and ran away in tears from the cemetery,” their lawyer Michael Abejon wrote in the claim. “They didn’t dare to look in the grave as they were convinced the coffin had opened and their dead father had fallen out.
This will make for some great PR, no? Pay the claim!