Another family files a Grim Reaper suit against Harvard

The family of a woman who willed her body to Harvard Medical School before she died in 2021 is the latest to sue Harvard and former medical-school morgue director after learning that he might have sold off parts of her body to people who collect such things.

In their suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, the surviving children and siblings of Robin A. Bansfield charge both Harvard and Cedric Lodge with tortious interference with human remains, negligent infliction of emotional distress and negligence. They separately charge Harvard with "respondeat superior" - essentially holding the school responsible for the actions of its employee while he was on the job.

Lodge, a New Hampshire resident who drove around in a Subaru with plates reading GRIM-R, was arrested in June along with people, including the owner of a creepy-doll store in Lynnfield on federal charges related to the way he allegedly removed parts from bodies after Harvard Medical School was done with them but before they were cremated and sold them.

On Nov. 22, Harvard answered earlier suits by other families by basically saying the families could sue Lodge all the want, but leave the out of it, that officials were as shocked as everybody else and that ""any liability that attaches to Lodge for his alleged criminal activity attaches to him alone."

The judge overseeing all the cases has yet to rule on Harvard's request to be dropped as a defendant.