A person was known to be alive and to own property, then disappeared without reliable news of death. Through presumption of continuity, the established state is not discarded merely because of doubt. But using that presumption to establish every new financial entitlement is a distinct claim.
Defense preserves an existing status against unsupported negation. Creation of a new entitlement seeks to establish something not already shown. The demands of proof are not automatically identical.
Integrated inference: Absence of a proposed cause establishes absence of a ruling only when its exclusive causal relationship has been justified. Lack of information is not the same as information that something is absent.