The other Jose Diaz now has a lawsuit of his own. His family is seeking $18 million from R.G. Ortiz Funeral Home over the May body mix-up that placed his body on display at a stranger's wake. ABC7 and PIX11 report the family filed the complaint on Monday. News 12 says it received details of the suit ahead of its expected filing that day.
Jose Luis Diaz was 70 when he died on May 17, per News 12. His instructions to the funeral home were explicit: direct cremation with no viewing. All three outlets report what the complaint says happened instead. His body was dressed in another man's burial clothes and placed in the open casket at the wake for Jose Daniel Diaz Felipe, who was 84. According to ABC7, the plaintiffs are Shirley Leyro, Diaz's stepdaughter, and Jennifer Diaz, his daughter.
Get the Tuesday Deathcare Briefing
Who’s buying whom in deathcare — free, once a week.
The request was personal, ABC7 reports. Diaz had lost considerable weight during his illness, and his stepdaughter told the station he did not want anyone to see him that way. The other family, meanwhile, spent the May 28 wake, the scene Obitley described in August, telling the funeral director the man in the casket was not their loved one, per News 12. ABC7 quotes attorney Phil Rizzuto: they "were told no that's your father." Rizzuto says that family "saw a 70 year old man who's 6'1 in an 84 year old man's clothes who's much shorter." The funeral home later admitted a mistake had been made because the two deceased men shared the name "Jose Diaz."
The sisters say they knew none of it until they read a news article about the first family's lawsuit, according to ABC7. They had already received an urn. They now cannot be certain the ashes inside are their father's.
“"In trying to deceive the other family they used our father as a prop," Shirley Leyro told ABC7.”
The new complaint reaches past the corporate entity. News 12 and PIX11 report that it names Michelle Ortiz personally, alleging she is a licensed funeral director and the owner, president, CEO and controlling person of R.G. Ortiz Funeral Home. R.G. Ortiz runs eight locations across New York City, per Obitley's August reporting. Naming the owner personally puts her own conduct at issue, alongside the company's.
The claimed causes of action include negligence and breach of contract, per News 12 and PIX11. According to details provided to News 12, which the station attributes to a plaintiff press release, the complaint also alleges loss of sepulcher and gross negligence and seeks punitive damages. Loss of sepulcher is New York's common-law claim for interference with a family's right to possess a relative's remains and bury them properly. A body displayed at the wrong family's wake, against the decedent's explicit instructions, is about as clean a version of that claim as a complaint could plead.
Obitley's August reporting documented the rest of the record. The Diaz Felipe family sued first, filing on August 19 in Bronx County under index number 816374/2026E and seeking $16,396,000. At $18 million, the new demand tops it by roughly $1.6 million. That earlier reporting also traced a March 2025 incident in which the funeral home shipped the wrong body to another country, and a 2024 settlement with the city's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection that cost the firm $604,000 in restitution plus $100,000 in penalties over more than 82 charged violations.
Regulators have moved more slowly than the plaintiffs' bar. The two families' combined demands now top $34 million. ABC7 reports the New York State Department of Health is investigating the matter and that the funeral home's license has not been revoked. The station rounds the 2024 city action to about $600,000. Rizzuto, of the Rizzuto Law Firm, represents both families, and he is quoted in all three reports this week.
What This Means for You
*Sources: News 12 Bronx, "Second family sues R.G. Ortiz Funeral Home for $18 million over alleged body mix-up" (Natalie Hernandez, Oct 5, 2026); PIX11, "NYC funeral home faces $18M lawsuit after body mix-up" (Andrew Cruz, Oct 5, 2026); ABC7 NY, "Daughters sue funeral home over alleged mix-up, say father's body mistakenly placed in another man's casket" (Anthony Carlo, Oct 5, 2026); Obitley prior reporting, Aug 27, 2026.*
Get investigations like this in your inbox
Free. Every Tuesday.