A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Lynchburg against the Bedford Museum over the sale of cemetery records has drawn in principals from the two largest law firms west of Richmond.
Representatives of the Bedford Genealogical Society, Inc. sued the museum in November. They claim the museum has misrepresented itself as the owner of the records in violation of federal law and that it has infringed on the society’s trademark.
The museum sells the cemetery records on CD for $45 and offers access to them in exchange for a $25 membership. The database encompasses more than 1,500 county cemeteries and more than 37,000 names of those buried there.
Representatives of the newly incorporated society claim ownership of the records dating back to the early 1990s, when society volunteers began gathering the information.
They have asked a judge to stop the museum from selling the records and from doing business as the Bedford Genealogical Society. They also want to museum to turn over any money it has made from the sales and to pay unspecified damages.
In its request to dismiss the lawsuit, museum representatives state the society has always been a part of the museum and that the flap over the cemetery records is nothing more than a power grab.
“(Bedford Genealogical Society, Inc.) is not a legitimate successor in interest to the society,” museum representatives claimed in a court filing. “It is instead a corporate vehicle formed by several disgruntled, rogue (and now former) members of the society in an attempt to hijack and subvert the society and to serve their own purposes.”
Read the full article in the December 30, 2009 edition of NewsAdvance.com.
