Fiel v. Hoffman

169 So. 3d 1274, 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 11414, 2015 WL 4549604
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJuly 29, 2015
DocketNo. 4D14-1048
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 169 So. 3d 1274 (Fiel v. Hoffman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fiel v. Hoffman, 169 So. 3d 1274, 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 11414, 2015 WL 4549604 (Fla. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

WARNER, J.

In this appeal, we are asked to extend the Slayer Statute to bar the children and grandchildren of the murderer from inheriting under the decedent’s will. The language of the Slayer Statute does not allow us to make that extension. We therefore affirm the trial court’s order dismissing the appellants’ complaint based upon the Slayer Statute, but we reverse the dismissal of the count seeking to void the will based upon undue influence.

This case arises from the probate of Ben Novack’s estate. Ben was murdered in 2009. This case became notorious when Ben’s wife, Narcy, was arrested and then convicted of Ben’s murder. She also was responsible for the death of Ben’s mother. She did all of this to assure that she and her family would obtain Ben’s considerable fortune upon his death. Narcy had a daughter by another marriage, and the daughter had two sons. Both the daughter and her sons were named in Ben’s will as beneficiaries if Ben’s mother and Narcy did not survive Ben. Specifically, the will which was probated provided that if Ben’s mother did not survive, Ben’s estate would go to his wife Narcy. If neither his mother nor his wife survived him, then Narcy’s daughter would receive $150,000, and the residue of the estate would be held in trust for Narcy’s two grandsons.

After Narcy sought probate of the will, the court appointed appellee Douglas Hoffman as personal representative. Ultimately, the court determined that based upon section 732.802, Florida Statutes (2012), the Slayer Statute, Narcy was not entitled to participate in the estate, and the statute required the court to treat Narcy as having predeceased Ben. Therefore, her daughter and grandsons were the sole beneficiaries of the estate.

Ben’s cousins Meredith and Lisa Fiel (“appellants”) then filed a complaint and an amended complaint to invalidate the will currently under probate, as well as a prior will executed in October 2002, which devised the residue of Ben’s estate to Nar-cy, or to Ben’s mother if Narcy predeceased him. Appellants sought to enforce a will executed in June 2002, which devised the residue of Ben’s estate to his mother if she survived him, and to appellants if his mother predeceased him. The complaint brought several claims, two of which are at issue in this appeal: (1) undue influence in the execution of the two wills devising the estate to Narcy and her descendants; and (2) under the Slayer Statute, Ben’s stepdaughter and step-grandsons were barred from inheriting under Ben’s will.

In the amended complaint, appellants alleged the following facts. Narcy had used physical violence against Ben to make him execute the two wills naming her and her family as beneficiaries. She also threatened to make public embarrassing personal matters of Ben’s. Ben had sought a restraining order against Narcy, in [1276]*1276which he alleged that she had made death threats to him. She used physical violence and death threats to benefit her, her daughter, and her' grandchildren. Thus, appellants argued, the two wills were the product of undue influence. As to the Slayer Statute claim, appellants alleged that the court should prohibit Narcy’s daughter and grandchildren from sharing in Ben’s estate, because Narcy could, benefit from the estate indirectly, as her daughter and grandchildren could deposit money in her prison inmate account, thus thwarting the intent of the Slayer Statute.

The personal representative, moved to dismiss the complaint and the amended complaint, and the court ultimately granted that relief. The court determined that, while the complaint alleged undue influence on the part of Narcy, it made no allegations that the daughter and grandsons participated in any way. The court found, “Where it is shown that one beneficiary procured a will by undue influence, the devises to the remaining beneficiaries who did not participate in the procurement remain valid.” As to the Slayer Statute, the court determined that the Slayer Statute did not prohibit the children of the murderer from inheriting, ruling:

Section 732.802 is clear and unambiguous and does not extend the prohibition of receipt of property or other benefits to anyone other than the killer of the decedent. It is not for the Court to legislate new laws or amendments to existing laws that are clear and unambiguous, that is exclusively a legislative process.

After appellants voluntarily dismissed the remaining counts of the complaint, the court entered a final order of dismissal, prompting this appeal.

Appellants argue that Florida’s Slayer Statute should be interpreted to bar Nar-cy’s daughter and grandsons from inheriting under Ben’s will. The “slayer rule” first arose under the common law, from the concept “that no person should be permitted to benefit from his own wrong.” Carter v. Carter, 88 So.2d 153, 157 (Fla.1956). In 1933, Florida enacted section 731.31, Florida Statutes, which provided:

Any person convicted of the murder of a decedent shall not be entitled to inherit from the decedent or to take any portion of his estate as a legatee or devisee. The portion of the decedent’s estate to which such murderer would otherwise be entitled shall pass to the persons entitled thereto as though such murderer had died during the lifetime of the decedent.

Carter, 88 So.2d at 156.

Courts interpreted this statute as not barring inheritance in cases of, for example, a conviction for manslaughter. Nable v. Godfrey’s Estate, 403 So.2d 1038, 1040-41 (Fla. 5th DCA 1981). Disagreeing with this outcome, the Legislature later expanded the statute by enacting section 732.802, Florida Statutes, which now provides:

(1) A surviving person who unlawfully and intentionally kills or participates in procuring the death of the decedent is not entitled to any benefits under the will or under the Florida Probate Code, and the estate of the decedent passes as if the killer had predeceased the decedent. Property appointed by the will of the decedent to or for the benefit of the killer passes as if the killer had predeceased the decedent.

§ 732.802(1), Fla. Stat. (2013).

The Second District considered whether this provision barred inheritance by the slayer’s heirs in In re Estate of Benson, 548 So.2d 775 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989). In Benson, one of three siblings murdered his mother and one of his siblings. Id. at 776. The mother’s will bequeathed her property [1277]*1277to the three siblings; the murdered sibling died intestate, and the intestacy statute provided that the estate would pass to the slayer and the third sibling. Id. In rejecting the claim that the slayer’s children should be barred from any inheritance, the Second District ruled:

Appellant [the surviving, innocent sibling] ... argues that the public policy of Florida requires that Florida’s Slayer Statute should be extended to prevent [the slayer’s] minor children from sharing in either [the mother’s] or [the murdered sibling’s] estates-
We have no difficulty in rejecting appellant’s contention that there exists a public policy in Florida that would extend Florida’s Slayer Statute so as to disinherit the natural and/or statutory heirs of a killer who except for his murderous act would have been a beneficiary of his victims’ estates. We find the statutory language clear and unambiguous.

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Bluebook (online)
169 So. 3d 1274, 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 11414, 2015 WL 4549604, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fiel-v-hoffman-fladistctapp-2015.