El Dorado Hills Teen Injured by Falling Gravestone Files Lawsuit Against Bay Area Cemetery
An El Dorado Hills teenager has filed a lawsuit against Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, alleging negligence after a 2,500-pound granite gravestone toppled onto her during a burial service in September 2023, causing severe and lasting injuries.
According to the complaint filed April 2 in San Mateo County Superior Court, Diamond Kanongataa—now 19 and a college student—was attending her grandparent’s funeral when the heart-shaped monument at a nearby grave
“suddenly fell backward”
onto her left leg. Family members and bystanders rushed to help, and it ultimately took five men to lift the marker off her.
Kanongataa sustained multiple fractures to her ankle and foot, along with crushing injuries to her leg, her attorney, John Maples, said. The injuries have had long-term consequences, including chronic pain and limited mobility.
“If you go out there to the spot, there’s actually a depression in the spot where her leg was to this day,”
Maples said, describing the force of the impact.
Once an active volleyball player, Kanongataa can no longer participate in the sport. Her attorney said she is unable to walk for more than 15 minutes without significant pain and is now attending California State University, Sacramento remotely due to mobility limitations.
The lawsuit also claims the incident left her with an “indelible emotional scar,” compounding the physical trauma suffered during what was already a moment of grief.
Cypress Lawn, a historic cemetery established in 1892, operates in Colma—a small San Mateo County city known as the “City of Souls” for its concentration of cemeteries. The facility is accused of failing to properly secure or maintain the gravestone.
Cypress Lawn CEO Bob Gordon said Tuesday that he is reviewing the situation.
“I’d be happy to meet with the family,”
Gordon said in a statement.
Kanongataa, who lives in El Dorado Hills, is seeking at least $35,000 in damages. Legal experts note that such filings often represent a minimum threshold, with total damages potentially increasing as the case develops.
The case highlights broader concerns about cemetery safety and monument stability—issues that, while rarely publicized, can pose serious risks if maintenance standards are not consistently upheld.
