There are cases in this work that remind you why you became a lawyer.
Not because they are the biggest cases. Not because they will make headlines. But because something about them stays with you — because the injustice is so clear, and so human, that walking away is simply not an option.
This is one of those cases.
A Call I Didn’t Expect
Years ago, I received a phone call about a potential case involving something I had never heard of before: loss of sepulcher.
I didn’t know what it meant. I didn’t know if there was a case. But something about what I was being told didn’t sit right with me.
So I looked into it.
I learned that loss of sepulcher is about a family’s right to know that their loved one has passed — to have possession of their loved one’s remains, and to be able to grieve, mourn, and bury them with dignity. It is a right recognized under New York common law. It is, at its core, about what we owe each other as human beings.
Then I learned what this family had gone through.
Five Months of Not Knowing
In mid-September 2021, the family of Vincent Aguilera lost contact with their brother. They searched. They looked for answers. They tried to get help from the police, from government databases, from anyone who would listen.
At one point, his sister Leslie found an entry in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System — NAMUS — for a body pulled from the water in College Point on September 23, 2021. The clothing matched. The physical description matched. She tried to follow up with NAMUS. She got no meaningful response.
Through October and November of 2021, the family made repeated attempts to file a missing person report with the NYPD. According to the family, a report wasn’t accepted until November 2021.
They lived for five months in the unbearable space between hope and grief — not knowing that Vincent’s remains had already been recovered.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) had his body since September 24, 2021.
The family wasn’t told until February 3, 2022.
What the City Knew — and Didn’t Do
Here is what makes this case so difficult to sit with.
The OCME has its own internal identification protocol. When fingerprints don’t return a match from the state database, the protocol requires them to be submitted to federal databases — the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI — within approximately 30 days.
The state database returned a “no hit” on September 29, 2021.
The OCME didn’t submit Vincent’s fingerprints to DHS until January 23, 2022. To the FBI until January 24, 2022. The FBI returned a match on January 26, 2022.
Nearly four months late. No explanation was ever provided for the delay.
Had the OCME followed its own procedures, this family could have known the truth months sooner. They could have grieved. They could have buried their brother with dignity.
Instead, they spent five months searching for someone who had already been found.
Trying to Get Someone to Listen
I contacted news agencies. I felt this story needed to be heard. I felt, in some small way, like one of the family members — trying to get someone, anyone, to listen.
Nobody wanted to hear it. They were quick to dismiss it with a striking lack of humanity.
But that didn’t make it less true.
The Court’s Decision
On May 20, 2026, the Honorable Kevin J. Kerrigan of the New York Supreme Court, Queens County, denied the City of New York’s motion for summary judgment, allowing this case to move forward.
The Court recognized that a municipality owes a special duty to a decedent’s next of kin — a duty to inform them of their loved one’s death. That duty is not discretionary. It is not shielded by governmental immunity. And where a government agency violates its own internal rules and procedures, it cannot hide behind that immunity to escape accountability.
Judge Kerrigan’s decision is thorough and well-reasoned. And yet, with respect, it does not even scratch the surface of the City’s failures in this case. The full picture is worse than what appears in those pages.
You can read the Court’s full decision below:
Why This Case Matters
We will keep pursuing this case to the fullest extent — not only to obtain justice for this family, but to make sure that Vincent’s story is heard. To make sure that what happened to them does not happen to another family.
This is not just a legal claim.
It is a story about dignity. About family. About the basic human need to know what happened to someone you love.
And it is a reminder — to me, and I hope to anyone who reads this — that sometimes, the most important cases are not about the money at all.
Linden Law LLC represents the family of Vincent Aguilera in Aguilera et al. v. City of New York, Index No. 719921/2022, pending in the New York Supreme Court, Queens County.
