Why would changes to death rulings be limited to three years in Ohio?

Inspired by this news story: Living, breathing man will remain dead in the eyes of Ohio law.

Obviously, Mr. Miller slipped through the cracks in this law. But why would the timer period to alter death rulings be limited? Is this a practice generally in the U.S.? (In the entire common-law using world?) Or is it limited to Ohio?

Are laws like this in response to any particular incident, or are they general statutes of limitation to prevent people from constantly re-opening cases of “legal death” and gumming up the judicial works?

Thanks in advance.

There is life in Ohio? :dubious:

Sounds like he should challenge the Ohio law as unconstitutional as he is being denied life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Already being discussed here.

It boils down to that there’s a time limit because otherwise you couldn’t ever really declare anyone dead, and you have to have some kind of limit else some people might decide to “hide out” for a year, “grieving” spouse collects the benefits, and then you pop up again and say ‘hey, I’m still entitled to that money later.’

His wife started getting survivor payments about 20 years ago, and that money is gone.

He’s “dead” with regards to his Social Security number and benefits. Considering that he abandoned his kids (not to mention everyone else in his life) and evaded paying a ton of child support by taking off, I’m not too sympathetic to his current situation. He’ll be issued a new Social Security number; it’s not like he’s an un-person or something.

That’s the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution.

But according to the news story, his constitution is sound.


In any judgement, there has to be some finality. If you pop up 27 years later, after not caring, why should everyone have to inconvenience themselves and destroy their financial life to accomodate you? At a certain point, the rule has to be - no more changes.

Same with things like inheritance. If you pop up 30 years after the funeral and say “I’m also Joe’s heir, you guys all give me a big share of what you inherited!” it’s usually too late.

Part of it is willfullness. If there was no impediment to showing your face and alerting the authorities, then you can’t hide out then expect everyone to change their lives because all the arrangements made because of your death have to be reversed. If you had 8 years (5 missing to be decalred dead, 3 after judgement) and you did nothing, why should it be reversed.

They had to pick some number. A person who wants to be found can easily be. I assume it’s not just 5 years, you have to show also that you looked hard for the guy and found no evidence of where he was, or that he was alive, in the last 5 years. After that, how much grace do you need to give? what’s the difference betwen 3 years, 5 years, or 10 years? they already waited 5 years before the judgement, so pick a number. 3 years is plenty of time.

Bastard! I just spent 10 minutes combing articles looking for constitutional references before the light dawned on me. :smiley:

Round of applause!

Thanks for the info and the link, Ferret Herder!