Harvard to pay $53m to settle lawsuits over theft of body parts

BOSTON, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Harvard University has agreed to pay $53 million to resolve lawsuits by families alleging it mishandled the bodies of loved ones donated to its medical school and whose parts were then sold on the black market by the former manager of its morgue.

A state court judge in Boston on Tuesday preliminarily approved a class action settlement that would resolve lawsuits filed against the institution following the arrest in 2023 of Cedric Lodge, the former manager of Harvard Medical School's morgue.

Lodge, who had worked in Harvard’s morgue for almost three decades, was sentenced by a federal judge in December to eight years in prison for stealing and selling organs and other parts of cadavers that were donated to the school for medical research and education.

Prosecutors said that since 2018 he had been stealing parts from cadavers including heads, faces, brains, skin and hands and transporting them from Harvard's morgue in Boston to his home in Goffstown, New Hampshire, where he and his wife sold them.

Dozens of relatives of individuals whose bodies were donated to Harvard filed lawsuits accusing the school of negligence, contending it turned a blind eye to Lodge's years-long misconduct until he was indicted in 2023.

A judge initially dismissed the cases, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in October revived them , saying the plaintiffs had sufficient claims that Harvard failed to act in good faith in handling the bodies, whose "horrific and undignified treatment continued for years."

George Daley, Harvard's dean of the faculty of medicine, and Bernard Chang, the dean for medical education at Harvard Medical School, said in a message to the school's community dated Monday that Lodge's conduct was "despicable, abhorrent, and a flagrant betrayal of our values as a medical community."

They said the settlement, in addition to monetary provisions, included Harvard Medical School's pledge to provide a statement to the families via live webinar "confirming that Lodge’s criminal acts were morally reprehensible."

Beginning in the 2027-2028 academic year, Harvard Medical School will also establish an annual scholarship for medical students in honor of all of its anatomical donors, the school said.

"We hope that this resolution ensures that this never happens to another family ever again," John Morgan, whose law firm Morgan & Morgan represented families in the litigation, said in a statement.