Newburyport facing lawsuit after three bodies found buried in someone else’s plot

Husband and wife William and Angelina Lemnios purchased side-by-side gravesites in Highland Cemetery in Newburyport more than 30 years ago.

This summer, the day before the service to bury William, who died on June 18 at the age of 98, a city official called Angelina Lemnios and told her that while the site was being prepared, human remains were found already buried at the plot. 

Now, she’s suing the city for breach of contract and negligence, and asking for $100,000 for emotional damages and the cost of having to bury her husband elsewhere. 

William and Angelina Lemnios, who both grew up in Newburyport, married in 1954 and had four children together. They were happily married for more than 70 years until William’s death earlier this year, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Essex Superior Court. 

They chose the plots in 1988 because they were next to Angelina’s grandmother’s plot and near other members of her family. On Nov. 19, 2007, Angelina Lemnios contacted the Newburyport Highway Department, who operates and manages Highland Cemetery, to confirm the status of the lots. 

“During that conversation the agent for the Newburyport Highway Department confirmed that the lots were registered to Mrs. Lemnios and Mr. Lemnios and that the lots remained unused,” the complaint reads. 

William Lemnios did the same in 2023 and again received confirmation from the Newburyport Highway Department that the plots remained in their name. 

After Lemnios died this year, his funeral and interment were scheduled for June 26. 

On June 25, according to the complaint, Jennifer Sullivan, the manager of Newburyport’s Highway Operations, contacted Philip Lemnios, William and Angelina’s son, who has acted as an attorney-in-fact for his mother, to tell him that human remains were found already buried in the grave.

When Lemnios had called the Newburyport Highway Department the year earlier, it was Sullivan who had provided him with a “plot verification document,” which evidenced that the lots remained in the family’s name. 

A mock burial was held at Highland Cemetery on June 26 for Lemnios, but he had to be transferred and buried at Belleville Cemetery instead. 

“Mr. Lemnios’ current resting place does not align with his direct instructions and last wishes, which has caused great distress to the entire Lemnios family,” the lawsuit says, noting the Lemnios’ devout membership to the Greek Orthodox Church. 

Around Oct. 25, Gregory Sullivan, a lawyer for the family, informed Newburyport’s counsel that they would settle for nothing less than the city removing the bodies so that William Lemnios’ body can be buried there. Newburyport has declined to do so. 

The suit alleges breach of contract, because the city entered into a written contract with the Lemnioses when they bought the plots in 1988 and then failed to provide those burial spots when the time came, and negligence for allowing the remains of three individuals to be buried in the lots the family had purchased.

The defendants have yet to respond, and Mayor Sean Reardon did not respond to a request for comment. 

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