New York, New Jersey and presumably other states, have a lottery game called Win For Life, where the winners win $X per week for the rest of their lives.
As I was told in another thread many many moons ago, the government does not act to declare missing people dead. This action must be initiated by the family.
So, if a winner of such a contest was a missing person (be it from the WTC or whatever other reason) as is never found, can his/her family continue collecting the money every week forever (assuming they don’t move to declare the victim dead)? Could the lottery commission try to have the person declared dead?
Zev Steinhardt
Since it comes in the form of a check (and quarterly, not weekly), you’d have to endorse the check. Whether the check is made out to a living, dead, or missing person, signing a name other than your own is known as forgery.
What if you deposited it without signing it? If John Smith received a check, and his wife put it into their joint account at an atm, the bank might still accept it and deposit it into their account. I guess they’re not supposed to, but wouldn’t most banks do that as a courtesy?
I’d be angry at my bank if they called up and said, “Hi, you know your paycheck, yes the one you put into our atm last week with a deposit slip for your account. Well, you didn’t sign it, so we weren’t sure that you really really wanted to deposit it. BTW, your phone and electric bills have bounced while we held onto your paycheck. So, would you like to come in and sign it?”
I think Zev’s question is interesting. Could the state government start the process to declare someone dead if the family opposed it?