A recent shocking headline which has hit the news, is the case of Virginia McCullough who murdered her parents and lived alongside the bodies for four years in their family home. In video footage Virginia can be seen rather nonchalantly telling the Police "cheer up, at least you've caught the bad guy".
Virginia’s motive behind the murders was money; she had run up large debts on her parents’ credit cards and following their death spent their pensions. Virginia benefitted from a total of approximately £150,000 of her parents’ monies.
This article looks into what happens from a Contentious Probate perspective once “you’ve caught the bad guy”.
The Forfeiture Act 1982, stops a person from benefitting from someone’s Estate if the Deceased dies as a result of an act by that person. The Forfeiture Act states at section 1 that:- the “forfeiture rule” means the rule of public policy which in certain circumstances precludes a person who has unlawfully killed another from acquiring a benefit in consequence of the killing.
In Virginia’s case, the Act would have put a stop to her thrift-spend habits after being convicted of their murders. Even if Virginia was to inherit her parents Estates either as a named beneficiary under their Wills or as an intestacy heir under the intestacy rules, her entitlement would be forfeited due to her actions.
It is likely that Virginia’s parents’ Estate will pass to other named beneficiaries in the Will or other intestacy heirs as the Will would be read as if Virginia had pre-deceased her parents. If Virginia was named as Executor under the Will or was entitled to be administrator under rule 22 of the Non-Contentious Probate Rules 1987, she would also not be entitled to administer the Estate.
The Act therefore seeks to put a stop to cases like Virginia where children believe that killing their parents will entitle them to the monies in the Estate.
Another key example of this in the media is Netflix’s new tv series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez story”. This Netflix series covers the case of two young boys, Lyle and Erik who murdered their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. The children’s father was a wealthy businessman, and it was thought that one potential motive of the murders was to inherit their parents’ wealth. It is noted however that in this case there were potentially other motives for the murders. The killings also took place in the USA which is a separate legal jurisdiction and therefore governed by separate legislation. The Forfeiture Act was therefore not applicable in this case, although similar legislation preventing the receipt of inheritance applied.
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mfg Solicitors includes a specialist contentious probate team which acts for clients both nationally and internationally and has been consistently ranked in the top tier of the Legal 500 for the last 7 years including partners Robert Weston of the “Hall of Fame” and Andrew Chandler ranked “Next Generation Partner”.
For more information, please contact Amelia Edwards by emailing amelia.edwards@mfgsolicitors.com, or call our Kidderminster branch on 01562 820181.
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