A family is suing a funeral home after their grandmother's brain was sent to them in a bag of personal belongings following the woman's death.

A local newspaper says the grisly discovery was made after family members noticed a "foul odour" coming from a bag sent to them by the DeVargas Funeral Home and Crematory in Espanola Valley in the US state of New Mexico.

The allegation was contained in a lawsuit filed on behalf of four family members in a District Court in Albuquerque.

The bag had reportedly been left inside a family member's car overnight.

When they opened it, the woman's relatives found personal effects and a bag with the dead woman's name and "brain" written on it, the lawsuit alleged.

"Wouldn't you agree that it was a horrible mistake?" Albuquerque attorney Richard Valle said. "No loved one's brain should ever be part of those belongings."

The brain has since been buried with the woman's body.

Funeral home owner Johnny DeVargas says his business was not to blame, pointing the finger at another entity in Utah from where her body was sent after she died in a car crash.

"All I can say is DeVargas did absolutely nothing wrong and that the family was well cared for," he was quoted by the paper as saying.

"The family was very meticulously cared for and they were very pleased with our service."

- AFP