Regina Baker recalls feeling helpless.

"I went to see my mother for mother's day and she wasn't there,” she said. "I couldn’t get in touch with the funeral home."

Baker has searched for her mother's grave at St. Matthew's Cemetery with no success. Her mother is one of 215 graves relocated without consent due to a creek bank collapse.

Despite the collapse, Erie County Court Judge Dennis Ward ruled that St. Matthew's acted unlawfully by moving the graves without notifying families first.

The St. Matthew's Cemetery president maintains they acted as a result of an emergency.

Ward denied the cemetery's request for a retroactive order of approval of their actions, citing State Law that next of kin should be contacted.

"The judge has now said that we are going back to that stage, we are going back to the requirement that you now find out what is the desire of the next of kin,” said Barry Covert, families’ attorney.

St. Matthews is now required to make contact with all families of the deceased and document their efforts to do so.

The cemetery says finding the right contacts have been an issue. So far they've contacted 25 percent and issued new deeds.

Families also now have the option to relocate loved ones and/or upgrade their current burial site.

"It’s going to be the expense of the cemetery to now pay that and take care of the new plot and reburying the casket. The cemetery has been told you didn't do it the right way and you really need fix this, and that’s what we’re in the process of doing is fixing this,” said Covert.