Wife was convicted of the murder of her husband and therefore treated as having predeceased him under Florida’s slayers statute. Under the terms of the victim’s will, the residue passed to the slayer and if she predeceased, to the victim’s mother and the slayer’s daughter and grandsons. In Fiel v. Hoffman, the intermediate Florida appellate court affirmed the trial court’s holding that the statute bars only the slayer from taking the estate of the victim and does not disqualify the slayer’s relatives who took no part in the crime, but reversed the dismissal of that portion of the complaint alleging that the will was the product of undue influence by the slayer because the complainants must have the opportunity to show that the entire will and not just the provision benefitting the slayer was tainted by undue influence.
Special thanks to William LaPiana (Professor of Law, New York Law School) for bringing this case to my attention.
