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“We reaffirm our deep sorrow and empathy for the families of donors who may have been impacted.”
Harvard University said Tuesday that it had agreed to pay $53 million to settle claims that body parts that had been donated for research were stolen and sold by a former manager of the morgue at the university’s medical school.
The former manager, Cedric Lodge, 58, was sentenced to eight years in prison in December after pleading guilty to one count of interstate transportation of stolen goods. The university fired him in 2023.
Lodge had been entrusted with handling cadavers that were part of the Harvard Medical School’s Anatomical Gift Program and were supposed to be cremated after the research on them had been completed, prosecutors said.
But a sweeping federal investigation found that Lodge supplied brains, skin and other body parts to collectors in several states as part of a criminal network that involved several people, including his wife. Investigators said he drove the stolen body parts to his home in New Hampshire.
The breach went undetected from about 2018 until March 2023, tainting one of the nation’s most prestigious medical schools.
Families who accused Harvard of mishandling the remains of their loved ones sued the university. A Suffolk County Superior Court judge threw out a dozen lawsuits in 2024, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court revived them last year. It ruled that Harvard and the managing director of the Anatomical Gift Program were not protected by limited immunity under the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act.
Dr. George Q. Daley, dean of the faculty of medicine at Harvard, and Dr. Bernard Chang, the dean for medical education at Harvard Medical School, said in a statement announcing the settlement that the agreement would allow Harvard and the plaintiffs to avoid “prolonged litigation.”
“These events do not reflect the reverence we hold for the altruistic individuals who selflessly donate their bodies to our Anatomical Gift Program (AGP) to provide essential educational opportunities to medical and dental students, practicing surgeons and allied health professionals,” they said. “We reaffirm our deep sorrow and empathy for the families of donors who may have been impacted.”
The settlement was also announced in a statement from Morgan & Morgan, the law firm representing the donor families in Boston.
“Both Harvard and the plaintiffs’ attorneys worked diligently to come to an agreement so that these families can finally have closure and begin to heal,” Morgan & Morgan’s founder, John Morgan, said in the statement. “We hope that this resolution ensures that this never happens to another family ever again.”
Daley and Chang said in their statement that lawyers for Harvard and the plaintiffs would seek preliminary approval for the settlement at a hearing Wednesday. If it is granted, they said, two class-action settlement funds totaling $53 million will be established to resolve the lawsuits. A third-party settlement administrator will be appointed to notify potential class members of their eligibility and to distribute settlement funds.
The process is expected to take several months, they said.
Harvard Medical School has also agreed to issue a statement to the plaintiffs confirming that Lodge’s actions were “morally reprehensible” and another statement detailing changes that have been made to improve the Anatomical Gift Program.
Harvard has also agreed to establish an annual scholarship for medical students beginning in the 2027-28 academic year “in appreciation and in honor of all of our anatomical donors,” according to the university’s statement.
“While Lodge’s sentencing concludes the criminal case against him, and the class action settlement agreement when fulfilled would conclude the civil cases,” Daley and Chang wrote, “the process of recovering from this painful incident continues.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.