Yeah, he's out of luck. And Ginny is right about how it will happen -- if he electronically files first, you won't be able to electronically file, but you can do a paper return and claim the child anyway and later in the year the IRS will see the duplicate and start the process to determine who legitimately has the dependent deduction. BTW, if you're owed a refund, I do NOT believe that is held up if you paper file b/c of the duplicate. They do not check duplicates on the incoming returns, that's a later check they do b/c it's not a high priority earlier in the year b/c of deadlines they have to get returns processed. Trust me -- we've been through it.
