The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld a decision to annul the declaration of death for a Quebec man after new evidence indicated he is, in fact, alive and living in Iran.
In a unanimous 9–0 ruling, the court confirmed that when proof emerges that a person previously declared dead is actually alive, the legal fiction of death must give way to reality, according to The Canadian Press.
In February 2008, Hooshang Imanpoorsaid told his family he was going on a business trip to Toronto. The next day, he sent two of his children an email saying that “things got out of hand and to fix it, drastic measures are necessary to be taken.” He never returned to the family home in Brossard, in the greater Montreal area.
Shortly before his disappearance, Imanpoorsaid changed his life insurance policy to name his spouse, Deborah Carol Riddle, as the sole primary beneficiary.
Eight years after he vanished, Riddle went to court seeking a judgment declaring his death. Under Quebec law, a person about whom there has been no news for seven years can be declared dead, lifting uncertainty for families, creditors and insurers.
The man’s insurer, anticipating it would have to pay out under the life insurance policy, opposed the declaration. It argued that the circumstances surrounding the heavily indebted man’s disappearance suggested he was attempting to evade his creditors rather than having died.
Despite the insurer’s objections, the court granted Riddle’s application and declared that Imanpoorsaid had died seven years after his disappearance, in line with Quebec’s Civil Code provisions on absence and death.
After the initial judgment, new information emerged. Quebec Superior Court Justice Geeta Narang later heard evidence indicating that Imanpoorsaid was alive and living in Iran, the report said.
Narang found there were “reliable signs” that he had obtained a national identification card and a passport in Iran, traveled in and out of the country and registered for Iranian state benefits.
“This is sufficient to annul the declaratory judgment of his death,” she wrote in a 2021 ruling. “The legal fiction declaring him to be dead must be set aside to make room for the reality that he is probably alive.”
On that basis, Narang annulled the declaration of death. In 2023, the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld her decision. Riddle then appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada.
In Friday’s decision, Chief Justice Richard Wagner, writing for the court, emphasized that a declaratory judgment of death is a legal tool designed to resolve long-term uncertainty when someone disappears.
A declaration of death “lifts the paralyzing veil of uncertainty and allows life to move on,” Wagner wrote. However, because it is a legal fiction, “it must always yield where there is proof that the person who disappeared is currently alive.”
He noted that the Civil Code of Quebec sets out the consequences when such a person reappears – described in the judgment as an “undead person” – in those rare cases where someone about whom there has been no news for several years is later found to be alive.
The Supreme Court concluded that neither Narang nor the Court of Appeal erred in determining the legal framework for proving that a person declared dead has in fact returned, according to the report.
The court held that the evidence that a person is currently alive must satisfy the judge on a balance of probabilities. “The evidence must be clear and convincing so as to rebut the presumption of death, but no specific threshold of certainty is required,” Wagner wrote.
He added that while the physical presence of the person declared dead is always the best proof they are alive, a judge may be satisfied with other evidence that establishes the person is still living, particularly where the circumstances suggest the disappearance or seclusion is voluntary.
