Chicago sues South Side funeral home owners over after 56 decomposing bodies found

The City of Chicago has filed a lawsuit against the owners of the South Side funeral home where more than 50 decomposing bodies were found last month.

The lawsuit, filed on Friday of last week, names owners Clark and Johanna Morgan and several of their business entities.

The lawsuit lists 23 alleged building code violations, including the failure to keep the building "clean, sanitary and safe," no fire alarms or carbon monoxide detectors anywhere in the building, and unpermitted construction on the second floor. The city is asking a judge to fine the owners $11,500 per day for every day the violations go uncorrected.

Last month, authorities launched an investigation into the funeral home after 56 decomposing bodies were found piled inside a South Side funeral home. Johanna Morgan's funeral director's license was suspended when state regulators found decomposing bodies were being kept in "deplorable conditions" that included rodent and maggot infestations.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's office has identified most of the bodies. As of Aug. 21, nine of the 56 decomposing bodies remained unidentified; that number may have changed since, as identifications have been progressing quickly.

The families of the victims have also called for criminal charges to be filed.

Nearly a year before the decomposing bodies were found, sparking outrage and calls for reform, a Chicago alderperson's office complained to city officials twice within a week that residents were complaining about odors from the business and noted in the second complaint that the business owner had a history of mishandling human remains.

Yet when a city inspector visited the business two days after the first complaint, he spent 20 minutes on the scene, took a few photos, including one of an empty gurney in the funeral home's parking lot, dismissed the complaint after he was told that the smell came from a burning garbage can outside — and gave no indication in his 67-word narrative that he tried to go inside, according to the previously unreported document, obtained by Illinois Answers Project and Capitol News Illinois.

Chicago Ald. Peter Chico (10th) told the Chicago Sun-Times last month that the only complaints his office received about South Chicago Chapel prior to the recent discovery of bodies were related to alleged "gang funerals" held at the funeral home.

But new records show his office reported odor complaints and concerns from residents about the facility as early as last September.