$53M Harvard Settlement Resolves Class Action Lawsuit Over Mishandled Human Remains

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Harvard University has agreed to a $53 million settlement to resolve a consolidated class action lawsuit that alleged the school negligently failed to supervise former Harvard Medical School morgue manager Cedric Lodge, allowing him to steal and sell body parts from cadavers donated to the Harvard Anatomical Gift Program (AGP).

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The Harvard University class action settlement received preliminary approval from the court on August 18, 2026. Individuals eligible to participate in the settlement include:

• Any living spouses, registered domestic partners, children, grandchildren, parents, siblings and/or AGP designees of any donor with a removal receipt date (e.g., the date the donor’s body left the Harvard Morgue and was sent for cremation or burial) from January 1, 2018 through March 31, 2023 (the “primary” settlement class); and
• Any living spouses, registered domestic partners, children, parents, siblings and/or AGP designees of any donor with a removal receipt date from January 1, 2003 through December 31, 2017 (the “pre-2018” settlement class).

ClassAction.org will update this page when the court-approved website for the Harvard University class action settlement is live.

Per court documents, Harvard will pay $52.5 million into a settlement fund for the “primary” settlement class and $500,000 into a fund for the pre-2018 settlement class.

Harvard settlement class members who submit a timely, valid claim form with documentation supporting their claimed relationship to the donor can receive a cash payment from the applicable settlement fund. The final amount of each class member’s payout will be determined based on the total number of valid claims filed for each donor and the class member’s relationship-based allocation.

Class members must submit proof, such as copies of government-issued IDs or legal documents like death certificates, to receive a cash payment.

ClassAction.org will update this page with information on how to submit a Harvard University settlement claim form as it is released by the settlement administrator.

As part of the settlement, Harvard has agreed to hold a live webinar condemning Lodge’s conduct as “morally reprehensible” and issue a public statement disclosing changes that have been made to the school’s AGP. Additionally, Harvard will establish a medical scholarship in honor of donors.  

The court will determine whether to grant  final approval to the Harvard University human remains settlement following a hearing on December 9, 2026. Compensation will begin to be distributed to class members only after final approval has been granted and any appeals have been resolved.

The Harvard University class action lawsuit was filed after the 2023 arrest of Cedric Lodge, who managed Harvard Medical School’s morgue from 1995 until his firing in May 2023, for the alleged theft and sale of human remains that were donated to the school for medical research and education as part of the Harvard Anatomical Gift Program. The suit claimed that Harvard and Mark F. Cicchetti, the director of the school’s AGP, negligently failed to prevent Lodge’s unlawful conduct.

According to news reports, Lodge was sentenced in 2025 to eight years in prison for unlawfully transporting stolen human remains and supplying brains, skin and other body parts to buyers in several states.

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