Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
StumbleCompany settles state antitrust lawsuit over Palm Mortuary purchase
Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009 | 11:43 a.m.
View Davis Funeral Home and Palm Mortuary locations in a larger map
Related Document
A Texas company has agreed to sell some of its Las Vegas funeral home operations to settle an antitrust lawsuit filed by the state over its purchase of Palm Mortuary Inc.
Service Corporation International (SCI) will sell Davis Funeral Home and Memorial Park, 6200 South Eastern Ave. (Sunset Road), the Nevada Attorney General's office said.
SCI must also sell the pre-paid funeral business from that home and the pre-paid business from Davis Funeral Home, 2127 West Charleston Blvd. (Rancho Road); to settle a complaint filed by the state so it can proceed with the purchase of Palm Mortuary.
"We are very pleased and ready to move forward to serve the families of Las Vegas," SCI spokeswoman Lisa Marshall said of the settlement.
"Cemeteries involve major purchases, typically at an extremely difficult time when consumers are most vulnerable," Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto said in a statement. "It is critical to preserve competition in the cemetery market for local Las Vegas families."
The state filed a lawsuit Tuesday over the takeover of Palm Mortuary, and the settlement of the suit was announced today.
State lawyers charged in the suit in federal court in Las Vegas that the deal as originally proposed would have violated the federal Clayton Act covering antitrust law and the Nevada Unfair Trade Practice Act because "defendant’s proposed acquisition will eliminate head-to-head competition in an already highly concentrated market, and will result in defendant having a monopoly or near-monopoly market share post-acquisition for cemetery services in the Las Vegas metropolitan area."
Such a monopoly situation, the state charged, would increase the likelihood of higher prices and a reduction in the quality of cemetery services.
Besides the funeral operations it's selling, the state said SCI also owns Thomas and Jones Funeral Home, 310 Foremaster Lane (Main St./Owens Ave.).
Palm is the largest provider of cemetery and funeral services in the Las Vegas area with cemetery services in six locations and funeral services in eight locations, the state said.
Palm's locations include one in Boulder City; downtown Las Vegas at 1325 N. Main St. (near Owens Ave.); near Henderson at 7600 S. Eastern Ave. (Warm Springs Road); in Henderson at 800 S. Boulder Highway (Lake Mead Parkway); in northwest Las Vegas at 6701 N. Jones Blvd. (Deer Springs Way); in Las Vegas at 1600 S. Jones Blvd. (Charleston Blvd.); and in northwest Las Vegas at 7400 W. Cheyenne Ave. (U.S. 95).
The state said the deal -- without the divestitures -- would have combined the No. 1 and No. 3 businesses in the Las Vegas industry, with Palm now enjoying a 60 percent share and SCI 16 percent of the market.
SCI, based in Houston, says it's the nation's largest provider of funeral, cremation and cemetery services. It reported revenue of $497 million in the third quarter of this year.
Discussion: comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
No trusted comments have been posted.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
- Superstar Whitney Houston dies at 48
- UNLV can move forward without the burden of losing streak to San Diego State
- A wife’s wisdom shows birth control issue needn’t be divisive
- UNLV makes key plays down stretch to hold off San Diego State 65-63
- Surprise links, negotiated deals addressed by commissioners
- Hope and change and … what’s missing?
- Mitt Romney wins Maine caucuses, CPAC straw poll
- New York mayor has the right idea
- Motorcycle accident claims life of man in northeast valley
- We don’t need a CEO in charge
Blogs
The Kats Report
Color from scene at Thomas & Mack: We have a wire job! Rebels win, and Louie Armstrong sings!
South Point owner Michael Gaughan's take on 'Vegas Stripped': 'I'll give it an 8' (4 Comments)
Author relishes writing the life story of ‘larger-than-life’ Oscar Goodman (3 Comments)
Elsewhere
Landowner: All roads could lead to Uxbridge casino
Revel reveals smoke-free casino opening
Cirque du Soleil show in Sands China casino to close this month
Meet the woman behind Sheldon Adelson
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
This is a bad deal for the consumer. SCI does not have a good reputation in the funeral home business.
If I didn't need a funeral home, I would tell people just to bury me by my house. But since we have to deal with these devils, let them put me in soilent green.
SCI has had poor financial reports in 2009 and terrible scandals, veterans corpse abuse in Falls Church,VA. and massive Grave Desecration at Eden Memorial park in the Los Angeles Area(500 graves).
This is sad news for the funeral consumer