Arizona Laws 14-2803. Murder of decedent; effect; federal law; definitions
A. A person who feloniously and intentionally kills the decedent forfeits all benefits under this chapter with respect to the decedent’s estate, including an intestate share, an elective share, an omitted spouse’s or child‘s share, a homestead allowance, exempt property and a family allowance. If the decedent died intestate, the decedent’s intestate estate passes as if the killer disclaimed that person’s intestate share.
Terms Used In Arizona Laws 14-2803
- Action: includes any matter or proceeding in a court, civil or criminal. See Arizona Laws 1-215
- Agent: includes an attorney-in-fact under a durable or nondurable power of attorney, a person who is authorized to make decisions concerning another person's health care and a person who is authorized to make decisions for another person under a natural death act. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
- Beneficiary: means an individual for whom property has been transferred to, or held under a declaration of trust by, a custodial trustee for the individual's use and benefit under this chapter. See Arizona Laws 14-9101
- Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
- Child: includes a person who is entitled to take as a child under this title by intestate succession from the parent whose relationship is involved. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- community property with the right of survivorship: includes co-owners of property held under circumstances that entitle one or more to the whole of the property on the death of the other or others but excludes forms of co-ownership registration in which the underlying ownership of each party is in proportion to that party's contribution. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
- Court: means the superior court. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Decedent: A deceased person.
- Estate: includes the property of the decedent, trust or other person whose affairs are subject to this title as originally constituted and as it exists from time to time during administration. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
- Exempt property: means that property of a decedent's estate that is described in section 14-2403. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
- Fiduciary: includes a personal representative, guardian, conservator and trustee. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Governing instrument: means a deed, will, trust, insurance or annuity policy, account with pay on death designation, security registered in beneficiary form, pension, profit sharing, retirement or similar benefit plan, instrument creating or exercising a power of appointment or power of attorney or supported decision-making agreement or a dispositive, appointive or nominative instrument of any similar type. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
- Interested person: includes any trustee, heir, devisee, child, spouse, creditor, beneficiary, person holding a power of appointment and other person who has a property right in or claim against a trust estate or the estate of a decedent, ward or protected person. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- Payor: means a trustee, insurer, business entity, employer, government, governmental agency or subdivision or any other person who is authorized or obligated by law or a governing instrument to make payments. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Person: means an individual or an organization. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Personal representative: includes an executor, an administrator, a successor personal representative, a special administrator and persons who perform substantially the same function under the law governing their status. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Petition: means a written request to the court for an order after notice. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Probate: Proving a will
- Property: includes both real and personal property. See Arizona Laws 1-215
- Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
- Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
- Trust: includes an express trust, private or charitable, with any additions, wherever and however created. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Writing: includes printing. See Arizona Laws 1-215
B. The felonious and intentional killing of the decedent:
1. Revokes any revocable:
(a) Disposition or appointment of property made by the decedent to the killer in a governing instrument.
(b) Provision in a governing instrument conferring a general or nongeneral power of appointment on the killer.
(c) Nomination of the killer in a governing instrument, nominating or appointing the killer to serve in any fiduciary or representative capacity, including a personal representative, executor, trustee or agent.
2. Severs the interests of the decedent and killer in property held by them at the time of the killing as joint tenants with the right of survivorship or as community property with the right of survivorship, transforming the interests of the decedent and killer into tenancies in common.
C. A severance under subsection B, paragraph 2 does not affect any third party interest in property acquired for value and in good faith reliance on an apparent title by survivorship in the killer unless a writing declaring the severance has been noted, registered, filed or recorded in records appropriate to the kind and location of the property that is relied on as evidence of ownership in the ordinary course of transactions involving that property.
D. Provisions of a governing instrument are given effect as if the killer disclaimed all provisions revoked by this section or, in the case of a revoked nomination in a fiduciary or representative capacity, as if the killer predeceased the decedent.
E. A wrongful acquisition of property or interest by a killer not covered by this section shall be treated in accordance with the principle that a killer cannot profit from that person’s wrong.
F. After all right to appeal has been exhausted, a judgment of conviction establishing criminal accountability for the felonious and intentional killing of the decedent conclusively establishes the convicted person as the decedent’s killer for purposes of this section. In the absence of a conviction, the court, on the petition of an interested person, shall determine whether, under the preponderance of evidence standard, the person would be found criminally accountable for the felonious and intentional killing of the decedent. If the court determines under that standard that the person would be found criminally accountable for the felonious and intentional killing of the decedent, the determination conclusively establishes that person as the decedent’s killer for purposes of this section.
G. A payor or other third party is not liable for having made a payment or transferred an item of property or any other benefit to a beneficiary designated in a governing instrument affected by an intentional and felonious killing or for having taken any other action in good faith reliance on the validity of the governing instrument on request and satisfactory proof of the decedent’s death and before the payor or other third party received written notice of a claimed forfeiture or revocation under this section. Any payor or other third party is liable for a payment made or any other action taken after the payor or other third party received written notice of a claimed forfeiture or revocation under this section.
H. Written notice of a claimed forfeiture or revocation under subsection G of this section must be mailed to the payor’s or other third party’s main office or home by certified mail, return receipt requested, or served on the payor or other third party in the same manner as a summons in a civil action. On receipt of written notice of a claimed forfeiture or revocation under this section, a payor or any other third party may pay any amount owed or transfer or deposit any item of property held by it to or with the court having jurisdiction of the probate proceedings relating to the decedent’s estate, or if no proceedings have been commenced, to or with the court having jurisdiction of probate proceedings relating to decedents’ estates located in the county of the decedent’s residence. The court shall hold the monies or item of property and, on its determination under this section, shall order disbursement in accordance with the determination. Payments, transfers or deposits made to or with the court discharge the payor or other third party from all claims for the value of amounts paid to or items of property transferred to or deposited with the court.
I. A person who purchases property for value and without notice or who receives a payment or any other item of property in partial or full satisfaction of a legally enforceable obligation is neither obligated under this section to return the payment, item of property or benefit nor is liable under this section for the amount of the payment or the value of the item of property or benefit. However, a person who, not for value, receives a payment, an item of property or any other benefit to which the person is not entitled under this section is obligated to return the payment, item of property or benefit, or is personally liable for the amount of the payment or the value of the item of property or benefit, to the person who is entitled to it under this section.
J. If this section or any part of this section is preempted by federal law with respect to a payment, an item of property or any other benefit covered by this section, a person who, not for value, receives the payment, item of property or any other benefit to which the person is not entitled under this section is obligated to return it to the person who would have been entitled to it if this section or part of this section were not preempted or is personally liable for the amount of the payment or the value of the item of property or benefit.
K. The decedent’s estate may petition the court to establish a constructive trust on the property or the estate of the killer, effective from the time of the killer’s act that caused the death, in order to secure the payment of all damages and judgments from conduct that, pursuant to subsection F of this section, resulted in criminal conviction of either spouse in which the other spouse or a child was the victim.
L. For the purposes of this section:
1. "Disposition or appointment of property" includes a transfer of an item of property or any other benefit to a beneficiary designated in a governing instrument.
2. "Felonious and intentional" means a conviction or a finding of guilty except insane for a homicide pursuant to section 13-1103, 13-1104 or 13-1105.
3. "Governing instrument" means a governing instrument executed by the decedent.
4. "Revocable", with respect to a disposition, appointment, provision or nomination, means one under which the decedent, at the time of or immediately before death, was alone empowered, by law or under the governing instrument, to cancel the designation in favor of the killer, whether or not the decedent was then empowered to designate the decedent in place of the decedent’s killer or the decedent then had capacity to exercise the power.