Court stops ex-cop's funeral in battle over will

A HIGH Court judge has stopped the funeral of a 69-year-old former police corporal.

In an emergency sitting on Tuesday night, Justice Ricky Rahim restrained the man’s alleged caregiver and a funeral home from cremating, burying, or disposing of the body of Lawrence Mark, of San Juan, until further ordered.

Mark died on August 12 of stage IV prostate cancer and diabetes.

Rahim granted the order to Mark’s widow, who filed an emergency application to be made administrator of her late husband’s estate during the determination of a lawsuit in which she is challenging her husband's purported will, which she knew nothing about.

The alleged caregiver was named in the will as executor.

The purpose of the judge’s late-night order was to appoint Jennifer Mark administrator of his estate so that she can start and maintain the proceedings in the High Court against the other woman, as well as the funeral home, and to preserve the former policeman’s body until the court further orders.

As part of his orders, the documents Jennifer Mark filed in the case are to be served on Magdalene Roderique, also known as Theresa Rodriguez – the woman who is named as the executor of the purported will.

The attorney who allegedly handled Mark’s will was ordered to receive a courtesy copy.

Jennifer Mark’s application will be heard on Friday.

In support of her lawsuit, she said her husband moved out of the matrimonial home in May 2018, saying he was going by his brother in Sangre Grande. She said they communicated despite this. They had four children together.

She said in 2019, Lawrence filed for divorce, but the petition was dismissed, since he had not proven they had been living apart for the requisite time period.

She also said before his death, he never mentioned having a will.

She said on August 13, a woman named “Theresa” – whom she did not know before – came to their home and told her daughter Lawrence had died and she would be handling the funeral.

Mark said she heard her daughter ask the woman how that was possible, since her father was a married man with children, but the woman replied, “All of that changed now.”

Her daughter, after trying to find the woman’s home to get answers, went to the hospital and an administrator at the Port of Spain General Hospital said her father’s body was under the name “Trevor Mark” and had been admitted there in September 2020.

She went to the police station and was told her body was at a certain funeral home in Port of Spain. When she got there, she identified her father’s body and tried to have it released to the family.

Jennifer Mark retained attorneys from the firm Hove and Associates, who wrote to the funeral home on August 15, but was told they did not have the body and that they shared a fridge with David Guide and Sons Funeral Home.

David Guide and Sons is the funeral home named in the judge’s order. When the attorneys tried to get information from David Guide and Sons' funeral home, they were directed to an attorney.

By August 18, arrangements were made for the body to be released to Mark’s widow, Jennifer.

In her lawsuit, she said she believes the other woman claiming to be her husband’s wife collected money from his credit union accounts and was told she had also collected his national insurance benefit from the National Insurance Board.

Jennifer Mark said she was also told her husband had made a will of which the other woman was the executor.

She also said for the first time after his death, she found out the other woman was claiming to be her husband’s caregiver.

In the application for the emergency order, the mother and her daughter said they were sceptical about Lawrence Mark’s purported will and how it was executed.

Jennifer Mark has agreed to compensate the other woman and the funeral home if they suffer any losses as a result of her lawsuit.