Hoover v. First Interstate Bank

682 P.2d 469, 140 Ariz. 464, 1984 Ariz. App. LEXIS 537
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedMay 1, 1984
DocketNo. 1 CA-CIV 6237
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 682 P.2d 469 (Hoover v. First Interstate Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hoover v. First Interstate Bank, 682 P.2d 469, 140 Ariz. 464, 1984 Ariz. App. LEXIS 537 (Ark. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

OPINION

KLEINSCHMIDT, Judge.

This case presents the question of whether a conviction for manslaughter committed by “recklessly causing the death of another person” conclusively establishes that the convicted person “feloniously and intentionally” killed another within the meaning of A.R.S. § 14-2803(A) so that the slayer is precluded from succeeding to any property interest of the victim. We hold that such a conviction is not conclusive and that the probate court must determine whether Linda Hoover, the appellant in this case, intentionally killed her husband. [465]*465Many of the facts set forth below are taken from information that emerged in the criminal proceedings brought against the appellant. They are not a part of the record in this case. Since this opinion does not turn upon the facts we include them only as background. The probate court, of course, was presented with the record of appellant’s conviction for manslaughter.

The marriage of Kenneth and Linda Hoover was not a happy one. One day in October of 1979, Linda, after an ongoing quarrel with her husband, loaded a handgun and wrote a suicide note. A struggle ensued in which the gun was fired at various angles. Both Linda and Kenneth were shot. Kenneth died of three bullet wounds to the chest. Linda survived.

There is some evidence that Linda suffers from retrograde amensia but she purports to remember awakening with her husband lying on top of her. She called the police and as she was being removed to the hospital she made the statement that all she wanted was to make her husband stop beating her.

Linda Hoover was indicted for first degree murder and ultimately pled guilty to a charge of manslaughter, a class 3 felony, a violation of A.R.S. § 13-1103(A). That statute, as it pertains to this case, provides:

A. A person commits manslaughter by:
1. Recklessly causing the death of another person; or
2. Committing second degree murder as defined in § 13-1104, subsection A upon a sudden quarrel or heat of passion resulting from adequate provocation by the victim;____

The second degree murder statute, A.R.S. § 13-1104(A)(3), reads:

Under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life, such person recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death and thereby causes the death of another person.

“Recklessly” as that term is used throughout the criminal code is defined in A.R.S. § 13-105(5)(c) as meaning:

[W]ith respect to a result or to a circumstance described by a statute defining an offense, that a person is aware of and consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the result will occur or that the circumstance exists. The risk must be of such a nature and degree that disregard of such risk constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a reasonable person would observe in the situation.

At the time the plea of guilty was entered the trial court established a factual basis for it but did not specify whether the crime was committed under subsection A(l) or subsection A(2) of A.R.S. § 13-1103. When Linda Hoover was sentenced she told the judge that she had intended to kill herself but had not intended to hurt her husband.

The appellee, First Interstate Bank, as personal representative of the Estate of Kenneth Hoover, petitioned the probate court for a determination that Linda Hoover was prevented from succeeding to any of her husband’s property interests. The petition was based on the terms of Arizona’s so-called “slayer’s statute”. That statute, A.R.S. § 14-2803(A), precludes one who “feloniously and intentionally” kills another from receiving any of the property of his victim by will, intestacy, as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy or as a surviving joint tenant. Subsection E of the statute reads:

A final judgment of conviction of felonious and intentional killing is conclusive for purposes of this section. In the absence of a conviction of felonious and intentional killing the court may determine by a preponderance of evidence whether the killing was felonious and intentional for purposes of this section.

The probate court concluded that a conviction for manslaughter under any section of A.R.S. § 13-1103 conclusively brings the slayer’s statute into play. It thus held that as a matter of law Linda Hoover cannot succeed to any of her late husband’s property.

[466]*466While the appellant has chosen to subdivide her argument into somewhat overlapping parts we synthesize it as follows. She says that summary judgment was improper because there remains a disputed question of fact as to whether or not she killed her husband intentionally. She believes that she is entitled to a trial to resolve this issue. She proceeds to argue, based on the case of Estate of Kramme, 20 Cal.3d 567, 143 Cal.Rptr. 542, 573 P.2d 1369 (1978), that the intentional commission of a reckless act remains mere negligence not rising to the level of intent necessary to trigger the slayer’s statute.

The bank disagrees. It says that a conviction for manslaughter under A.R.S. § 13-1103 is conclusively a “conviction of felonious and intentional killing” within the meaning of the slayer’s statute. It points out that one can commit manslaughter either by recklessly causing the death of another or by committing second degree murder upon a sudden quarrel resulting from adequate provocation. A.R.S. § 13-1103(A). It assumes that the latter grounds would clearly trigger the slayer’s statute so it is to an analysis of “recklessly”, as that term is used in A.R.S. § 13-1103(A)(1), that the bank directs its argument.

The bank contends that since it is the purpose of the slayer’s statute to “[prevent] a wrongdoer from profiting by his own wrong,” “recklessly” as used in A.R.S. § 13-1103(A), the manslaughter statute, is the equivalent of “intentionally” as used in the slayer’s statute. It cites In re Estate of Josephsons, 297 N.W.2d 444

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Bluebook (online)
682 P.2d 469, 140 Ariz. 464, 1984 Ariz. App. LEXIS 537, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hoover-v-first-interstate-bank-arizctapp-1984.