Tag: presumption of death

Nine years after Samuel Zagaria disappeared, his sister Joanne petitioned the Cook County probate court for a presumption of death. The court complied and appointed Joanne, Zagaria’s only heir, the administrator of her brother’s estate. But in the course of administering the estate and trying to collect insurance benefits, Samuel turned up alive. Unfortunately for Samuel, that was not the end of the story. The physical fact of his existence did not immediately invalidate the legal presumption of death. Samuel had to ask the court to revoke the presumption and […]