On October 8, 2014 the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal intended to overturn outdated laws regulating Pennsylvania’s funeral industry.
The case was brought by some 30 plaintiffs who had been successful in district court with a previous challenge to the 1952 Funeral Directors Law. That ruling was then overturned by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. The plaintiffs, led by Ernest Heffner, owner of Heffner Funeral Chapel Inc. took the case to the Supreme Court in hopes that it would overturn the district court ruling and rule that the law is unconstitutional.
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from a local funeral home owner and others across the state over Pennsylvania’s decades old funeral laws.
Ernest Heffner, president and owner of Heffner Funeral Chapel Inc. in West Manchester Township, and some 30 other plaintiffs were seeking changes to state regulations governing Pennsylvania funeral homes, which include prohibitions to:
- Non-funeral directors owning funeral homes;
- Paying unlicensed salespersons a commission on the sale of funeral goods or services;
- The use of trade names by funeral homes;
- Serving food at funerals;
- And funeral directors who are single and childless from passing on ownership of a funeral home after death.
The law also requires that every funeral home location have a separate, fully equipped preparation room.
Read the full story: US Supreme Court declines funeral petition
Read more on the store in the Central Pennsylvania Business Journal
