Carl Miller Funeral Home in Camden seeks protection from creditors
CAMDEN – A funeral home founded in the 19th Century has filled for protection from creditors, citing unsecured debts of more than $1.5 million.
Carl Miller Funeral Home Inc. owes more than $800,000 to New Jersey tax authorities and about $200,000 to the IRS, according to a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden.
Its 20 largest creditors with unsecured debts include two funeral-supply firms that sued the Camden business over the alleged failure to pay its bills.
The Jan. 20 filing reports assets between $50,000 and $100,000.
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The family-run firm, which is seeking to reorganize its finances under a Chapter 11 bankruptcy action, traces its roots to 1861.
It operates on the 800 block of Carl Miller Boulevard, a street renamed in 1997 as a posthumous honor for a former funeral director.
The funeral home's president, Pamela Dabney, and its attorney, Jenny Kasen of Cherry Hill, did not respond to requests for comment on the bankruptcy action.
The filing describes as "disputed" all but one of the firm's debts to its largest unsecured creditors,. The disputed debts have a combined total of $5.1 million.
It does not dispute a $1.8 million claim from Dabney for the funeral home’s lease.
The business has faced multiple lawsuits in recent years, including two filed by creditors Bradbury Burial Vault Co. of Blackwood and AG Peters & Son, a funeral supply firm in Williamstown.
The Chapter 11 filing lists disputed liabilities of $135,000 for Bradbury Burial Vault and about $65,000 for Peters & Son.
The funeral home also faces a lawsuit over an alleged failure to embalm a man's remains in September 2018.
Superior Court Judge Steven Polansky on Jan. 24 cited the bankruptcy filing in dismissing the company as a defendant in that lawsuit.
But the Camden judge said the funeral home could be reinstated as a defendant "if the bankruptcy proceedings do not fully dispose of the issues" involving it.
In addition, the funeral home has not satisfied a $13,500 judgment issued by a judge in a slip-and-fall case in April 2019, court records show.
Jim Walsh covers public safety, economic development and other beats for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal.
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This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Funeral home, which traces roots to 1861, cites debts of more than $1.5M
