One of the stranger cases.
A Judge in Ohio has ruled that a man declared legally dead after he disappeared in 1994 still is legally dead. Even though the man was in court asking the judge to declare him not dead.
Long-time correspondent, photographer, reporter, bumper sticker aficionado, and music impresario Danelle sent us the story, via The Courier in Findlay, Ohio:
Donald Eugene Miller Jr. walked out of Hancock County Probate Court on Monday as legally dead as ever.In 1994, the court ruled that Miller was legally dead, eight years after he disappeared from his Arcadia rental home.The same judge, Allan Davis, ruled Monday that Miller is still dead, in the eyes of the law. Miller’s request for a reversal came well after the three-year legal limit for changing a death ruling, Davis said….Miller’s ex-wife, Robin Miller, had asked for the death ruling so Social Security death benefits could be paid to their two children….She said after the court hearing that Donald Miller left the state with hefty child support bills. He was scared of a jail term, she said.He owed about $26,000 in overdue child support by 1994, she has said.Robin Miller opposed his request for a change in the death ruling, because she does not want to repay the Social Security benefits. She does not have the money, she said….Judge Davis referred to Donald Miller’s case as a “strange, strange situation.””We’ve got the obvious here. A man sitting in the courtroom, he appears to be in good health,” Davis said….But the three-year time limit on the death ruling is clear, Davis said.”I don’t know where that leaves you, but you’re still deceased as far as the law is concerned,” Davis said.
Eugene Miller apparently is not happy, according to the reporter who attended court:
Mrs. Miller expected the court to be packed with paparazzi, and was surprised there was a single reporter and photographer:
Give it time. This story will be viral soon enough.
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