Complete Story
09/06/2024
PLA and Indiana State Board of Funeral and Cemetery Service Issue Statement about Spring Valley Funeral & Cremation Service (New Albany, Indiana)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
Media Contact:
Doug Boyle, Director of Legislative Affairs and Communications
Emily Cox, Assistant Director of Communications
Indiana Professional Licensing Agency
communications@pla.in.gov
PLA and Indiana State Board of Funeral and Cemetery Service Issue Statement about Spring Valley Funeral & Cremation Service (New Albany, Indiana)
Indianapolis, IN – On August 1, 2024, the Indiana State Board of Funeral and Cemetery Service (the Board) held an administrative hearing to consider the Petition for Summary Suspension filed against the funeral home license (License No. FH12400007) and Certificate of Authority (License No. CA22400012) of Spring Valley Funeral & Cremation Service (Spring Valley), 1217 East Spring Street, New Albany, IN 47150. Upon completion of this hearing, the Board took action to summarily suspend Spring Valley’s funeral home license and Certificate of Authority for ninety (90) days, pursuant to state law, and ordered Spring Valley to cease its operations. The Board’s Summary Suspension Order was issued to the parties on August 15, 2024.
The Board will consider renewing the summary suspension for additional ninety (90) days at its next scheduled meeting on October 3, 2024. Also, the Office of the Attorney General filed its formal Administrative Complaint against Spring Valley with the Board and the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency (PLA) on August 15, 2024. A separate administrative hearing will be scheduled before the Board to consider the formal Administrative Complaint, but the exact date for that hearing has not yet been determined yet. At this time, the Board and PLA will not comment further on this pending litigation before the Board, nor any ongoing investigation(s).
Subsequent to the issuance of the Board’s Summary Suspension Order, Spring Valley’s managing funeral director, Mr. M. Trevor Lytle, contacted the PLA’s local compliance inspector and notified her of his intent to close the funeral home. PLA’s compliance inspector completed a “closing inspection” of Spring Valley on August 21, 2024. Spring Valley’s funeral home license and Certificate of Authority have now been placed in “Closed Facility” status, which does not impact the pending litigation before the Board at this time, nor impact the Board’s ability to impose additional sanctions against Spring Valley’s funeral home license and Certificate of Authority.
Mr. Lytle was instructed to deliver all unclaimed cremated remains to the Floyd County Coroner’s Office. Families who have not received their loved ones’ remains should contact the Floyd County Coroner, to make arrangements for repossession their loved ones’ remains. PLA’s compliance officer took possession of Spring Valley’s contract files, namely its pre-need contract files, and the contract files were delivered to the PLA’s main office in Indianapolis. PLA and the Board will review and work through these contract files case by case, and will work with the appropriate parties of these contracts to have them reassigned and redistributed to other local funeral homes. Consumers who are party to any of Spring Valley’s contract files may contact the PLA, to verify PLA’s and the Board’s current possession of their contract file and request that their contract file be reassigned and redistributed to a particular local funeral home of their choice. To more efficiently manage the processing, reassignment, and redistribution of these contract files, PLA and the Board respectfully ask consumers to do the following:
- Please send a detailed email to PLA and the Board at pla12@pla.in.gov. Please use “Spring Valley (New Albany, IN) Request for Assistance” in the subject line of your email.
- Within the body of your email, please provide a detailed description of your request for assistance. For any contract requests, such as pre-need contract requests, please provide the name of the “funeral recipient/beneficiary” who is the subject of the contract, and, as applicable, please provide the name and address of the funeral home where the contract file should be reassigned and redistributed.
PLA’s staff will respond to consumers’ requests for assistance directly. PLA respectfully asks for consumers’ patience, as its staff works through the files and responds accordingly to all requests.
Consumers who purchased certain services or merchandise, such as headstones, that were never fulfilled and delivered by Spring Valley and its managing funeral director at the time of purchase, may consider filing additional consumer complaints with the Office of the Attorney General.
