CEMETERY PLOT LAWSUIT REJECTED.

Byline: Holly Edwards Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - A Superior Court judge has rejected a Santa Clarita woman's demands for $50,000 in damages from Eternal Valley Memorial Park and instead ordered her to pay the cemetery's court costs.

Pamela Russo filed a lawsuit against Eternal Valley in October 1997, claiming the cemetery sold her family's burial plots surrounding her son's grave after she paid over $3,000 for them.

However, cemetery officials maintained Russo breached her contract to purchase the plots when she failed to make two final payments totaling $126, and say they repeatedly notified her of the overdue bills.

After reviewing the evidence, North Valley Superior Court Judge John Farrell ruled this week that Russo failed to prove she had paid her account in full, though he conceded that Eternal Valley's record-keeping practices ``leave something to be desired.''

``It is clear from the evidence that considerable efforts were made over a long period of time by (Eternal Valley) to have (Russo) comply with the payment terms,'' Farrell wrote in his Sept. 18 ruling. ``No breach of any fiduciary duty was proved.''

Steven Gurnee, attorney for Eternal Valley, said his client was ``fully vindicated by the court's decision.''

``We did everything we could to accommodate this woman,'' Gurnee said. ``Why she had the need to put herself through this is beyond me.''

However, Russo's attorney, Martin Berman, said it was impossible for his client to prove she made all 48 of the payments because she did not have all of the check stubs.

``If a company comes back years later and says you didn't make all your payments, how do you prove you did?'' Berman said. ``It's a very inequitable situation.''

According to court records, Russo purchased a plot at Eternal Valley in September 1989 after her 18-year-old son, Darren, was killed in an automobile crash in Tennessee. At the time, she also agreed to purchase three plots next to him the following year.

She signed a contract with the cemetery agreeing to make 48 payments of $62.72 and to pay the full amount by June 1994, according to court records.

While Russo admitted in court documents that she missed some payments due to financial trouble, she said she made what she thought was the final payment in February 1995.

On Halloween Day 1996, during one of his weekly visits to his brother's grave, Joseph Russo discovered a freshly dug grave next to Darren, in the plot his mother intended to use for herself, according to court documents.

When Russo called the cemetery, she said she was told the plots had been ``returned to inventory'' because she failed to make a $126 payment, according to court records.

While cemetery representatives said they sent Russo numerous letters warning her that she could lose the plots if she did not make prompt payment, Russo contends she was never told a thing.

In a 1996 contract, the cemetery agreed to sell Russo two plots next to her son and another nearby for the same price she had agreed to purchase three plots in 1989, Gurnee said, adding that Russo still has ownership of the alternate plots.

``I don't know what else we could do,'' he said. ``We did all we could, but I guess she wanted more.''