Mom Awarded $605,000 Over Mistaken Baby Cremation

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A jury has awarded $605,000 to a Southern California woman who claimed coroner's officials failed to warn her that the body of her baby daughter would be cremated.

City News Service says jurors on Friday found in favor of Yvette Diaz in her negligence lawsuit against Los Angeles County. The panel awarded a total of $1.1 million but held Diaz herself 45 percent responsible in the case and so she won't get the full award.

The Monterey Park woman gave birth in May of 2016 but the child died at a hospital the next day. The infant was cremated nearly three months later.

Diaz sued, saying the cremation without her knowledge prevented her from giving the infant a Catholic funeral.