California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from Christensen v. Superior Court (Pasadena Crematorium of Altadena), 230 Cal.App.3d 798, 271 Cal.Rptr. 360 (Cal. App. 1990):
Similarly, the duty owed by a mortuary to a bereaved family has been analyzed in the context of the special relationship that arises upon an agreement to care for a decedent. In Draper Mortuary v. Superior Court, supra, 135 Cal.App.3d at page 537, 185 Cal.Rptr. 396, a third party entered an unlocked mortuary chapel door and sexually violated a decedent. The mortuary asserted it had no duty to the plaintiff, the decedent's spouse, absent a showing of a prior similar act or knowledge that a third party would act in such a manner whether or not there had been a prior act.
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