A funeral is probably the most painful reunion if it is for somebody that you love and any hitches in the protocol can be devastating, like when the hearse gets lost.

Now for a hearse driver, getting lost probably isn’t going to happen because the route between funeral parlours and churches are ‘well trodden.’ A long delay in the arrival of the hearse is more likely due to it breaking down or being involved in a road accident.

However, in the case that we are about to recount, the hearse didn’t turn up because the driver had decided to park up on the way and go for a few drinks… which is precisely what happened in Granada in 2023.

Unsurprisingly, the funeral parlour sacked him on the spot but the driver thought this unreasonable and took the company to court, which got as far as the Andalusian High Court where he definitively lost the case.

In the courts conclusions it was recounted how the man had parked the hearse with the body in it and gone into a bar in front of the home of the deceased where the family were waiting. Instead of contacting the deceased’s relatives with a plausible reason for a delay, he knocked back an alcoholic beverage.

The family, fearing that something had happened to the vehicle went out in search of it and found it parked in front of a bar directly opposite their flat.

One of the relatives had the idea of looking inside the bar and there, sitting at the bar, was the hearse driver. Asked what the hell he was doing there he replied that a relative had to recognise the body and walked over to the hearse and opened up the coffin in full view of everybody.

In fact, it wasn’t the only coffin in the vehicle (a black van with the company name on it) and the family was left wondering if any of the others were ‘occupied.’ Far from feeling any shame at his conduct, he demanded that they paid him for his services there and then or he wouldn’t hand over the body. He suggested a transfer via Bizum because nobody had that kind of money on them at the time.

The tribunal agreed that his conduct was completely unprofessional, detrimental to the good name of the funeral parlour and lacking the any respect for the feelings of the deceased ‘s family.

(News: City & Metropolitan Area, Granada, Andalucia)

Keywords: Funeral Parlour, Hearse, Bar, sacked, Andalusia High Court, Appeal Thrown Out

news, andalucia, granada, city & metropolitan area, funeral parlour, hearse, bar, sacked, andalusia high court, appeal thrown out