Funeral Home Sues LA Archdiocese For $250M

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A funeral home is suing the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for at least $250 million, alleging the archdiocese wants to cheat it out of business at six Roman Catholic cemeteries.

S.E. Funeral Homes of California filed the breach-of-contract suit Monday in Superior Court.

The company says that in 1997, it reached deals to lease land and operate a funeral service business for 40 years at cemeteries in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Culver City, Rowland Heights and Oxnard.

The company says it spent $37 million to build funeral homes and other buildings.

However, the company says it was notified this month that it had violated the leases and they'll be terminated.

The suit claims that's a trumped-up bid to seize its business.

The archdiocese plans to issue a statement Tuesday.

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