Undue Influence Probate & Murder Estate Case: July 29, 2015 probate appeal from Florida’s 4th DCA….when a murderer’s child & grandchildren inherit from the victim’s estate

If you are involved in an undue influence probate case about trying to overturn a will based on undue influence, you may want to read this July 29, 2015 4th District Court of Appeal opnion onundue influence and also the Florida Slayer Statute.  If someone murders you, do they inherit in a Palm Beach probate?  If someone is a murderer, can their children or grandchildreninherit under the Florida will?

Palm Beach Probate Appeal from Ben Novack’s Ft. Lauderdale Probate

• This case involved a decedent (dead person) in Broward County, Florida and his estate
• The name of the decedent was Ben Novack
• Ben Novack’s estate was involved in this probate lawsuit and undue influence case
• The Personal Representative of Ben Novack’s estate appealed a Ft. Lauderdale probate court ruling
• Ben Novack’s wife was convicted of his murder
• Should a murderer inherit under Florida probate?
• What does the Florida Probate Code say about Florida Statutes 732.802 ?

Florida’s Inheritance Laws for Murder: Should murderers inherit under Florida probate rules?  What about the Florida slayer statute?

• If someone murders you to inherit from  your estate, there is a Florida probate lawwhich stops that?
• Florida’s slayer statute stops someone who is involved in a murder from inheriting from the victim’s estate
• But…what about the murderer’s children or grandchildren?
• You need to read the Fiel v. Hoffman case handed down in Palm Beach by the 4th DCAof Florida.
• The wife tried to probate the will of the husband she killed in Florida!
• The wife and murderer had a daughter with another person and the daughter also had children
• So, do the murderer’s daughter and grandchildren inherit the victim’s Florida estate?
• Or…do the heirs of the victim inherit the probate?
• The victim’s will said that if his mother and his wife, Nancy, the murderer, don’t survive, then the murderer’s children and grandchildren would inherit
• But wait…. the spouse, Nancy, murdered the victim !
• OK, she doesn’t inherit under the Florida probate rules and slayer statute, but what about her kids and grandkids?
• THIS was one of the major points of this Palm Beach probate appeal!
• If someone kills another, the killer does not inherit; the killer is treated as if the killer died before the victim.  See F.S. 732.802

What is the Florida Slayer Statute?

• Read the Florida probate code, section 732.802
• It is commonly referred to as the Florida Slayer Statute, or, you can just refer to it as part of the Florida Probate Code
• If Florida Statutes 732.802 is applicable to your estate or Palm Beach probate, then the person who it affects, the murderer or the person who brought about the death of someone is dis-regarded in the probate of the Florida estate
• That means a murderer in Florida can’t inherit or be the executor of the will, like thePersonal Representative of the Ft. Lauderdale Estate
• But wait…………..!
• What if the murderer had kids and grandchildren?
• Don’t most Florida wills have an alternate beneficiary? A contingent beneficiary toinherit if the person named in the will is not alive?
• Yes, but………………………
• Can children of a murderer still inherit from the estate of the victim?
• Yes…………you need to read this Palm Beach probate appeal and Florida law 732.802.  The so called Slayer Statute.
• This recent probate appeal West Palm Beach expands or explains Florida Probate Law on whether a murderer can inherit from the probate
• Can a person who committs murder in Florida inherit from the estate? No, but read this appeal probate case and read Florida probate code 732.802.

Undue Influence Over Ben Novack?  Who inherits estate?

• Another aspect of this probate appeal is the undue influence claim by Ben’s cousins
• They wanted to set aside two Florida wills based on undue influence
• They claimed that Ben Novack’s wife Nancy used physical violence against Ben Novack to make him sign two wills naming her and her family as beneficiaries of his Florida probate
• In Florida, all probate litigation law firms West Palm Beach know that a will based on undue influence is void
• The Broward County probate court found that where one beneficiary got a will based onundue influence, the inheritances to the remaining beneficiaries who did NOT participate in the undue influence are valid
• The 4th DCA dealt with the issue of whether a complaint or petition to void a will based on undue influence should be dismissed or not for failure to state a cause of action.
• The Personal Representative of Ben Novack’s estate won that issue.  The 4th DCAreversed the Ft. Lauderdale probate court, which dismissed the petition to void the Florida wills based on undue influence.
• The Palm Beach appeals court said that the undue influence claim should not be dismissed.   There was enough of an allegation that Nancy, the wife and murderer, caused undue influence to void the entire will, not just the part that had Nancy and her family inherit
• While undue influence may void an entire will or only part of the will, this case focussed on whether it was claimed that the entire will was void due to the undue influence

Here is a free copy of the case: the legal opinion on this estate appeal written by the Palm Beach appeal court, Florida’s 4th DCA: http://www.4dca.org/opinions/July%202015/07-29-15/4D14-1048.op.pdf