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Judge Tells Man “Alive” – “You Are Legally Dead”

In a good example of how justice could be blind, an Ohio man who was declared dead after he had disappeared from his home eight years earlier appeared in court to ask a county judge to reverse a 1994 ruling that declared him legally dead, but the judge turned down his request, citing a three-year time limit for changing a death ruling. A death ruling cannot be changed after three years have passed. Accordingly, the man was held to be legally dead.

The Hancock County Probate Court  called it a “strange, strange situation.” “We’ve got the obvious here. A man sitting in the courtroom, he appears to be in good health,” said the judge who told the man the three-year limit was clear.

“I don’t know where that leaves you, but you’re still deceased as far as the law is concerned,” the judge said.

The man resurfaced eight years ago and went to court so that he could get a driver’s license and reinstate his Social Security number.

His ex-wife had opposed the move, saying she doesn’t have the money to repay the Social Security benefits that were paid out to her and the couple’s two children after Miller was declared dead.

The man’s ex-wife said her former husband vanished because he owed big child support payments and that the overdue payments had totaled $26,000 by 1994, The (Findlay) Courier (http://bit.ly/1e5mJkr) reported.

The man who is 61, and now lives in the northwest Ohio city of Fostoria, told the judge that he disappeared in the 1980s because he had lost his job and he was an alcoholic. He lived in Florida and Georgia before returning to Ohio around 2005.

His parents told him about his “death” when he came back to the state, he said.

“It kind of went further than I ever expected it to,” the man said. “I just kind of took off, ended up in different places.”

The man’s lawyer, said his client may be able to challenge the Social Security Administration in federal court, but he can’t afford to do it, adding that his client is “here on a wing and a prayer today.”

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courtesy – huffingnton post