SEQUIM — The Linde Family Funeral Service has been fined $3,000 by the state Department of Licensing for failing to file death certificates in a timely manner, Licensing spokeswoman Christine Anthony said Friday.
The department found that during 2008, Linde filed 94 death certificates late. State law requires that funeral homes file the certificates in three business days; at Linde, the majority were one or two weeks late, but some came in more than two months late, Anthony said.
Jason Linde, who owns the company with partner Chris Price, said Friday that because his funeral service covers a large territory — Clallam, Jefferson and Kitsap counties — death certificates are mailed out to doctors.
That can cause delays, Linde said, but with the distances between the Sequim company and its clients, he cannot hand-deliver the certificates as many other funeral homes do.
“We handled 95 deaths last month,” Linde said, adding that some other rural funeral homes only handle a third of that number.
Since Linde opened the business three years ago, “we grew very fast. . . . We’re doing something kind of innovative to cover a large area” by mailing the certificates, he added.
Driving across the North Olympic Peninsula to hand-deliver certificates would be prohibitive, since “some doctors are 100 miles away.”
“We’re trying to keep our customers’ costs down,” Linde said.
The state investigated Linde Family Funeral Service in October 2008, Anthony said.
Beginning April 1 of this year, the company has been subject for one year to random state audits of its death-certificate records.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.
