Owner Attempting to Sell Oak Lawn
By: Alex J. Hayes
The owner of Oak Lawn Memorial Gardens entered into the cemetery business by accident. Now he wants out.
Ramesh Rao said in a recent interview he hopes to sell the 24.9-acre cemetery for $1.4 million. In the meantime, the Philadelphia engineer said he is committed to keeping the property maintained.
Rao acquired Oak Lawn in July 2015. He said he loaned money to Raj Patel, who had loaned money to former owner James Delaney.
“Ramesh, as part of trying to resolve this litigation that he was involved with, took assignment of the sheriff’s bid kind of as a bluff, as a poker play,” Rao’s lawyer, Steven Williams of Harrisburg-based firm Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman PC, said.
Rao hoped Patel would pay him the money he owed him and take possession of the cemetery.
“He never intended to own the cemetery, he never intended to operate the cemetery,” Williams said.
