After a two and a half day trial, a Northside cemetery must now award an elderly Jacksonville woman $660 thousand.

Restlawn Memorial Park must pay Lovie Gardner $60 thousand for a breach of contract and another $600 thousand for pain and suffering, according to Gardner’s attorney Guy Rubin.

Rubin says Gardner’s family had a long relationship with Restlawn dating back to 1977 when her family started buying plots.

Once Restlawn started having problems with ground maintenance in the 1990s, Gardner decided to have her family placed in a mausoleum instead of the ground.

Rubin says she traded her family’s plots for mausoleums.  When her mother passed away in 2006, the cemetery told her they didn’t have a mausoleum built for her family yet.  So they offered to put her in a temporary one until it was built.  They said they’d transfer the body when the time came.

“Restlawn did not properly identify where they put Ms. Gardner’s mom and essentially lost her and cannot be found now,” Rubin said.

Over the course of the next two years, Rubin says the people of Restlawn kept promising Gardner they’d find her mother and build her family’s mausoleum.

“There were a number of empty promises month after month after month,” he said.

After two years, Gardner confronted the owner of Restlawn, who Rubin says told her “he didn’t have time for her complaints.”

Rubin says he made a profane remark to her.  Gardner threatened that she’d take him to court over the matter.

“To which the owner replied, ‘Go ahead.  By the time this goes to court, you’ll be dead’,” Rubin said.

During that time, Rubin said Gardner was still grieving and “trying to find the peace that one expects when dealing with a cemetery.”

Gardner sought the help of Rubin, who during the discovery period of the trial found multiple documents which showed bodies put in the same grave markers and mausoleum spaces.

“The paperwork was a mess and still is a mess,” he said.

Gardner ended up going on valium and other medication to calm her down.  Rubin says she would have episodes of uncontrollable crying.

Rubin says the jury heard a two and a half day trial.  They deliberated for fifteen minutes and delivered the verdict.

Gardner was awarded $60 thousand for the breach of contract with Restlawn, and another $600 thousand for her pain and suffering.

WOKV is reaching out to Restlawn Memorial Park for reaction.