The headstone of Jayleen Castaneda, who died at five months old, was finally delivered in June after several months of waiting and delays. (Alex Garcia/Chicago Tribune)
By Jon Yates | A Hillside gravestone maker has been ordered to pay more than $15,000 in damages and fees for failing to deliver a headstone as quickly as promised.
The default judgment, entered Tuesday by DuPage judge Bruce Kelsey, requires Caesar Rizzi of Hillside Memorials Inc., to pay Jorge and Aurora Castaneda $10,000 in compensatory and punitive damages, and an additional $5,485 in court costs and legal fees.
The ruling comes more than eight months after the Castanedas were featured in the What’s Your Problem? column. The June 4 column detailed how the Chicago family paid Hillside Memorials $1,700 for a gravestone for their daughter, Jayleen, who was just five months old when she died.
After the Problem Solver contacted Rizzi, he delivered the gravestone, roughly six months late.
Geneva attorney Jim Skaar contacted the Castanedas after reading the column and offered to represent the couple in a civil lawsuit.
Skaar, who had a similar experience with Hillside Memorials in 2004, said hopes Tuesday’s order will have an impact on Rizzi.
“I wanted to teach him a lesson,” Skaar said. “Maybe this will get him to change his behavior.”
Rizzi did not return a call from the Problem Solver Tuesday afternoon.
The Problem Solver has written about Rizzi six times since September 2008. The gravestone maker has also been sued by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who accuses Rizzi of violating a 2006 court ruling that ordered him to refrain from fraud.
That case is ongoing.
Yeah, you wanted to “teach him a lesson.” You mean you smelled blood, I mean money, in the water and came in for the attack. Yes, he should be held accountable but don’t act like you’re Prince Charming, ambulance chaser.
“I wanted to teach him a lesson,” Skaar said.
Teach who a lesson….teach the illegals how to get free money off of American companies via lawsuits ?
Thanks a lot !
I don’t usually reply to posts but I will in this case. WoW
Ceasar Rizzi is SCUM, He has taken me for my money. I want to be there the day they lock him up. Taken people for there money at their lowest moments after loosing a loved one
Cicero Unga: Are you racist or know for a fact that they are “illegals?” Many people who are born and bred in the USA are from hispanic descent and are as American as the rest of us who are white. Of course, if you were an American–a country founded on the ability to accept others regardless of race–then you would know the difference. I also doubt an “illegal” would make themselves public, don’t you think?