Trial begins in casket monopoly case filed by Ponca City casket seller

<br>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ A federal lawsuit that alleges an Oklahoma coffin monopoly could change the way Oklahomans shop for caskets. <br><br>Ponca City resident Kim Powers, who sells funeral supplies

Tuesday, November 19th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ A federal lawsuit that alleges an Oklahoma coffin monopoly could change the way Oklahomans shop for caskets.

Ponca City resident Kim Powers, who sells funeral supplies via the Internet, is challenging a state law that prohibits her from doing business with Oklahomans because she does not have a degree in mortuary science.

Oklahoma is one of 10 states that allow only licensed funeral directors to sell caskets. Opponents of the laws say they create a casket cartel and take away a consumer's right to search for the best deal.

Powers, president of Memorial Concepts Online, has sued the State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors in federal court. A trial, expected to last three or four days, began Monday before U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot.

Powers' attorneys, paid for by the Institute for Justice in Washington, D.C., claim the law violates her right to earn a living. They also say it makes no sense to require someone who sells caskets to obtain a funeral director's license, which in Oklahoma requires two years of college, a one-year apprenticeship and the embalming of 25 bodies.

``It is akin to requiring someone who wants to be a bus driver to be a licensed airline pilot,'' attorney Clark Neily said in his opening statement.

But Joseph McCormick IV of the Attorney General's Office, which is representing the funeral directors board, said the Oklahoma Legislature created the 87-year-old law to protect grieving consumers from fraud.

``It's the Oklahoma Legislature that has the right to pass these laws,'' McCormick said. ``That's what this case is about.

``This isn't some willy-nilly thing that was made up by this board. We're protecting Oklahoma consumers.''

Powers studied journalism and education in college, worked as a real estate agent, sold life insurance and eventually got a job with a funeral home in Ponca City.

She sold funeral plans to people who wanted to plan their own service and pay for it before their death. Powers had a certificate from the state Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors to perform that job.

But when she launched her own business, with partner Dennis Bridges of Knoxville, Tenn., she was not allowed to sell caskets to Oklahomans. Residents of most other states can purchase her caskets, which she says are less expensive than those in funeral parlors.

The Institute for Justice, which won a similar case in Tennessee in 2000, said some funeral homes put a 600 percent markup on caskets.

Similar laws were struck down in the last few years in Mississippi and Georgia. Aside from Oklahoma, states that allow only licensed funeral directors to sell caskets are Maine, Vermont, Delaware, Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, Minnesota and Idaho, the institute said.

In Oklahoma, violation of the law is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

About 490 businesses in the state handle arrangements for the 33,000 or so people who die here each year. The average Oklahoma funeral costs $5,500, not including the plot and grave. That's slightly higher than the national average of $4,700, the institute said.

The number of independent casket sellers has grown across the country in the last decade because of a 1994 Federal Trade Commission regulation that prevents funeral homes from charging ``casket-handling'' fees if consumers choose to buy their casket from another business.

The FTC filed a brief supporting Powers in the Oklahoma lawsuit, saying the state law limits consumer choice.