HARRISBURG — A dispute between two Pennsylvania funeral-home trade groups landed in federal court this week, with one camp claiming the other has an "incestuous relationship" with the state agency that regulates their industry.

About three dozen funeral directors and companies filed a 114-page legal broadside against the State Board of Funeral Directors in U.S. District Court on Tuesday.

The plaintiffs, including members of the Pennsylvania Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association, said the board has essentially been captured by the 1,100-member Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association, the largest such group in the state.

The filing revisits a long-standing dispute over efforts to regulate the sale of "pre-need" services to people who want to plan and pay for their funerals before they die.

It also seeks to invalidate funeral-related laws and regulations the plaintiffs called "unduly restrictive, overly broad, anticompetitive, discriminatory and constitutionally infirm."

"It has become widely known in the funeral industry that the state board's interpretation of the Funeral Director Law is directly and frequently related to (the association's) legal position on the issue at hand, a legal position repeatedly driven by greed and quest for an ever larger market share, if not monopoly," according to the lawsuit.

"Regrettably, over approximately the past two to three decades or so, the State Board has developed an incestuous relationship with PFDA."

The Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association disputed the suggestion that it wields undue influence over state government.

"You can say the same thing about doctors and lawyers and others," said John Eirkson, the association's executive director. "Are we any more influential than anyone else? I don't believe so."

Leslie Amoros, a spokeswoman for the state funeral board, said Thursday she was not familiar with the lawsuit so was not yet able to comment.