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RALEIGH (AP) — North Carolina's appeals court is considering a lawsuit filed after a living man was declared dead, zipped into a body bag and taken to a morgue.

State Court of Appeals judges are considering whether to allow the lawsuit, which contends the mistake led to injuries from which Larry D. Green, 34, might never recover, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Thursday.

Green's family and guardian sued officials to recoup money for the 24-hour care that Green needs in the Wilson rest home where he lives. He's fed through a tube and is bedridden.

"He needs care 24 hours a day," said Judith Vincent-Pope, an attorney from Cary who represents Green. "He's improved so little."

Franklin County officials settled their part of the lawsuit for $1 million this summer. Paramedics from the town of Louisburg are still fighting the lawsuit.

A lower-court judge ruled this year that Franklin County's former medical examiner, J.B. Perdue, should face liability in state courts even though North Carolina law typically gives broad protection to civil servants who make mistakes on the job.

Vincent-Pope told appeals court judges during a hearing Wednesday that Perdue was so negligent that his behavior should be seen as malicious. Negligence claims against state employees are typically heard by the State Industrial Commission. Awards there are capped, and the most Green could recoup is $500,000.

"We don't think there's any evidence that he (Perdue) acted negligently," said Mabel Bullock, a special deputy attorney general.

Green was walking across a highway north of Louisburg in January 2005 when he was hit by a car.

A Louisburg paramedic found him face down in the road and checked for a pulse. He declared Green dead and never tried to resuscitate him. When a county paramedic arrived, the first paramedic asked the second to check Green again for a pulse. The county paramedic said that his colleague's judgement was good enough for him and never checked for vital signs.

Perdue then disregarded signs that Green was alive, including eye twitches and chest movements as he breathed, the lawsuit alleged.

Perdue examined the body both at the scene and at the morgue in Louisburg, but didn't notice Green was still alive until about 2 1/2 hours after the accident. That was after a state Highway Patrol trooper asked Perdue to help determine from which direction Green was struck.

Perdue pulled Green from the refrigerator where he had been stored for more than an hour and saw more eye twitching, then called for paramedics, the lawsuit said.

Perdue, 72, resigned as Franklin County's medical examiner last year. He has been retired from his surgery practice for more than a decade and has let his medical license lapse.