News

Court-ordered sale of Shepherd Memorial Park on hold

By Amy McCraw, Published: August 13, 2025

The court-ordered sale of Shepherd Memorial Park is once again on hold after a recent unanimous decision by the N.C. Court of Appeals.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court on Aug. 8 granted a request by one of the cemetery’s attorneys for a temporary stay or pause in the case. The order was filed in Henderson County’s Superior Court on Wednesday.
“By unanimous vote, the motion for temporary stay filed in this cause by petitioner Shepherd Memorial Park, Inc. on 7 August 2025 is allowed,” according to the appeals court order.
The order goes on to say that an order entered by Superior Court Judge Marvin P. Pope concerning bids received during the court-ordered auction of the cemetery and any other proceedings related to the sale of the property are stayed until the appeals court rules on a request by the cemetery for a more formal and longer-term stay of the case while it is on appeal.
Durham attorney Daniel Gibson, who is representing the cemetery in its appeal of the case, said on Wednesday that he was happy with the decision by the appeals court.
“We think that is an indication there’s merit here,” he said.
An attempt to reach the attorney representing the North Carolina Cemetery Commission for comment on the decision to grant the temporary stay was unsuccessful on Wednesday.
The order from the appeals court came after the sale of the property to Altmeyer Funeral Services appeared to be moving forward.
Pope, who has been overseeing the receivership of the cemetery, last week directed Altmeyer in an order filed with the court to pay a percentage of the $340,000 it bid for the cemetery in June.
Once the West Virginia-based Dignity Funeral Services Inc., which does business as Altmeyer Funeral Services, paid a deposit of 5 percent of the $340,000 the funeral business bid for the cemetery, it like would likely begin a 10-day upset bid period required by law.
Judge Marvin Pope in his order filed last week also barred Melody Shepherd, the widow of the late Hendersonville funeral director Tom Shepherd, from placing an upset bid, either directly or indirectly, for the cemetery.
In a hearing in July, Pope declared Altmeyer Funeral Services owner Jimmy Altmeyer the highest bidder for the cemetery and also directed him to make the 5 percent deposit. But Altmeyer said recently that the 10-day upset bid period probably could not begin until the judge’s orders were filed with the court.
A report of sale of the property was also filed with the court last week.
Gibson filed a notice of appeal in Superior Court in July stating that Shepherd Memorial Park intended to appeal Pope’s order concerning bids received during the June auction of the cemetery.
In a petition filed with the court of appeals on Aug. 7, Gibson argued that a temporary and longer-term stay of Pope’s rulings concerning the sale of the property to Altmeyer are needed because if not paused while the case is appealed Shepherd Memorial Park, Inc. will suffer irreparable harm from the upset bid period moving forward.
“The trial court ordered the ‘sale of the cemetery to proceed’ and the commissioner to file the report of sale immediately. (App. p. 66). Filing the report of sale begins the upset bid period. Under this Court’s precedent, the end of the upset bid period divests Shepherd Memorial of its property and moots this appeal,” according to Gibson’s petition filed with the court of appeals. “A stay is necessary to preserve Shepherd Memorial’s property and appeal rights while this appeal is pending.”
Gibson in the petition also said that Shepherd Memorial Park is likely to win the appeal on its merits, arguing that Pope exceeded his authority by limiting who could bid on the property and by ordering the sale of the cemetery.
The petition also argued that the N.C. Cemetery Commission lacked the authority to force the sale of the cemetery.
Gibson on Wednesday said he did not know when the court of appeals might make a decision on his request for the longer-term stay in the case while the appeal is proceeding.
Cases in the court of appeals typically take between a year and a year and a half to resolve, he said.
In separate enforcement actions over the past five years, the North Carolina Board of Funeral service shut down the century old Thos. Shepherd & Son funeral home and the Cemetery Commission forced the cemetery into receivership after numerous complaints.
Altmeyer eventually bought the Shepherd funeral home in a court-ordered auction.
Pope on Dec. 23 ordered the public sale of Shepherd Memorial Park, the last remaining large asset of the family that transitioned to the funeral business in 1903 after first selling coffins at a furniture store. The judge’s December order also explicitly barred Melody Shepherd from “directly or indirectly” placing a bid to purchase the property or “acquiring any interest in the cemetery.”