Texas Slayer Rule
Recent UK case on the Slayer Rule
The Texas Slayer Rule differs from other states’ and countries’ rules but has procedures to accomplish the same end result. See this discussion. The Texas Slayer Rule is a rule that courts use to prevent a murderer from inheriting from the person he killed.
Occasionally, you can look at other states’ and countries’ cases to gather information that may help with a Texas case. In England, a woman killed her husband and was sent to prison. She also lost her inheritance. She appealed, and the appellate court found that she was a wife who had been abused by her husband, which led to the murder. The judge said the facts were so bad that a waiver of the Slayer Statute was in order.
“I emphasise that the facts of this terrible case are so extraordinary, with such a fatal combination of conditions and events, that I would not expect them easily to be replicated in any other.”
If a Texas case included such a “fatal combination” being so “extraordinary,” it is maybe unlikely that a similar case could arise, but if a battered spouse murders the abusing spouse, the Texas courts may consider those facts. A link to the article is here: