BY ALICIA CRUZ

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Two Queens, New York siblings have filed a $25 million lawsuit against a Linden, New Jersey cemetery claiming breach of contract. For twenty years, the sisters have been paying their respects at a cemetery plot they believed their beloved mother was laid to rest only to learn there was actually a man buried at the site.

Evelyn and Hortense Edwards complained to cemetery officials that their mother's gravesite was unkempt. At that point, a Rosehill Cemetery employee looked up the plot in question and informed the women that a man was actually buried in that particular plot.

According to MyFoxNY, Hortense Edwards purchased the plot, and three others, after her mother, Beatrice Williams, died in 1990 so that they would be buried alongside her when they died. The grieving daughter still has the deed showing the location as grave 103 in row 20 of section 52, but cemetery records show that a man, not Williams, is buried there. During an interview with CBS 2's Don Dahler, Hortense Edwards said she was shocked and distressed to learn her and her family had been mourning at the site of a stranger’s cemetery plot instead of their mother.

Mark Crawford, the attorney representing the sisters, said he did not know the identity of the man buried beneath Williams' grave marker, and expressed doubt that the Williams mix-up was limited to just two sets of remains.

The lawsuit, filed in Brooklyn federal court in Brooklyn, is seeking damages for the emotional distress the Edwards sisters have endured since the cemetery acknowledged that the plot location and information was incorrect. The court documents state the cemetery’s error caused the women to visit, pray and seek comfort at a resting site where they laid flowers, prayed and often had confidential conversations at the wrong grave.

In a letter to 1010 WINS’ Mona Rivera, the sisters’ other lawyer, Stephen Drummond said the monetary compensation his clients seek is simply to punish and hold Rose Hill Cemetery accountable so that they are not inclined to make such an error again, CBS New York reported.