Family told son is dead. He is not.

By |2022-01-05T18:19:25+00:00June 23rd, 2017|

Imagine the horror of getting a call that your child is dead. Imagine notifying your relatives and friends, grieving the loss and holding the memorial. Eleven days after the $20,000 memorial service you get a call telling you that your son is not in fact dead.

Could this happen? It actually did happen.

An Orange County family was called and told their beloved son was found dead outside of a cellular phone store in Fountain Valley. The son, Frank Kerrigan junior, was 57. He suffered from a mental illness and had been homeless. The family attempted to identify the body but due to the condition of the body it was difficult to ascertain whether or not it was Frank.

The family was told that the body had been identified through fingerprints. That was not, however, the case. The identification was made by an old Department of Motor Vehicles photo.

The family, understandably shocked, is trying to understand why and how such an egregious mistake could be made. “He was not given the dignity and the due-diligence in the process that a normal citizen of Orange County would get,” Frank’s sister Carol Meikle said in an interview.

Easton & Easton, LLP has been hired to hold the negligent parties accountable. View the news coverage of this story.

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Doug Easton has practiced law since 1971. After 20 years of practicing with various large litigation firms, he founded the Law Offices of W. Douglas Easton in 1991 as a solo practitioner. In the years that followed, Doug’s sons Brian and Matt joined him in the practice and helped build the firm into a powerful force to help right the wrongs done to their clients. Much of their success over the years has stemmed from the dynamic created by the familial nature of the firm and how harmoniously they all work together, each of their individual strengths complementing and fortifying the group as a whole. Accordingly, the firm changed its name to Easton & Easton, LLP in 2014 to better reflect the true dynamic of the firm and Doug now serves as Managing Partner of Easton & Easton. In 2015, Doug was selected as a Top 100 Litigation Lawyer in California by The American Society of Legal Advocates. In addition, Doug is listed in Strathmore’s Who’s Who, and in 2008 was named its “Professional of the Year” in Medical Malpractice.
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