“I don’t know where that leaves you, but you’re still deceased as far as the law is concerned,” Judge Davis told Mr. Miller during the 30-minute hearing, according to The Courier, a newspaper in Findlay.

The newspaper called Mr. Miller “the most famous dead man alive.”

In an interview, Judge Davis said that the case was decided “in strict conformity with Ohio law,” but that it had led to “a bizarre set of circumstances.”

He suggested that Mr. Miller’s situation could lead the Ohio legislature to rethink the law. In the meantime, he said, Mr. Miller can appeal the decision or take the matter up with the Social Security Administration, which might have a different view of the law.

“Every time you think you’ve seen everything,” the judge said, “something like this comes along.”

Ms. Miller’s lawyer, James Hammer, opposed Mr. Miller’s resurrection on the ground that Ms. Miller might have to return the several years of benefit payments she received for her daughters. “You just didn’t want to open a Pandora’s box of possibly having to return the benefits,” he said in an interview.

Ms. Miller, a nurse who cannot work because of a disability, said she was not trying to be vindictive toward her former husband, but could not afford to repay the money. She first learned that Mr. Miller was alive when he showed up in front of her home more than a year ago, sitting at a picnic table with his girlfriend. “I said, ‘Oh, my gosh!’ ” recalled Ms. Miller, who has married again to a man whose surname is also Miller. “It was civil the whole time. We were both very nice.”