The wife sought to claim under the 1975 Act despite having been convicted of her husband’s manslaughter from diminished responsibility. She was the sole beneficiary under his will but was precluded by her conviction from taking any benefit under the will.
Held: Her claim under the 1975 Act was struck out as disclosing no reasonable cause of action. Her alternative reliance upon the Forfeiture Act 1982 also failed, she having been convicted nearly three years before the Act was passed.
Slade LJ said: ‘It is not a consequence of the will or of the law relating to intestacy that the plaintiff is precluded from receiving the provision thereby made for her. Unhappily it is a consequence of her own act, coupled with the forfeiture rule’.
Judges:
Slade LJ
Citations:
[1985] 1 Ch 22
Statutes:
Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, Forfeiture Act 1982
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Sudershan Kumar Rampal v Surendra Rampal CA 19-Jul-2001
The parties were divorced, but when the husband applied for ancillary relief, the wife petitioned for nullity on the basis that the marriage was bigamous. The husband countered that she had known that his first marriage had only ended after this . .
Cited – Witkowska v Kaminski ChD 25-Jul-2006
The claimant sought provision from the estate claiming to have lived with the deceased as his partner for the two years preceding his death. She appealed an order which would be enough to allow her to live in Poland, but not in England. She said . .
Cited – In Re K, decd ChD 2-Jan-1985
A wife had pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of her husband, though she had been subject to long term abuse by him.
Held: Relief was granted to the wife under s.2(2) of the 1982 Act. The forfeiture rule for suicide operates to sever any joint . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Wills and Probate
Updated: 23 March 2022; Ref: scu.235262