WESTON -- The German man trying to prove his father is former Weston mayor Louis Craig has suffered another legal setback.

Franz Anthoefer had appealed the court's earlier decision that he had not filed his claim in time to have it considered. He was apparently supposed to have done this before his 21st birthday.

Lewis County Family Court Judge Robert Sowa refused to reconsider the now 50-something Anthoefer's claim and said the hearing will have to go to a higher court. The case will now go before Circuit Court Judge Thomas Keadle. Keadle is the same judge who agreed to exhume Craig's body in for DNA testing in 1996.

That test showed that Craig is almost certainly Anthoefer's father.

Anthoefer claims that Craig had an affair with his mother while working in Germany in 1950.

A German court has already recognized Craig as his father, but Anthoefer wants that same recognition in the United States.

No hearing for the latest appeal has been set.

In November, City Council made Anthoefer an "honorary citizen."

Copyright 2007 West Virginia Media.