{"id":6156,"date":"2018-10-12T12:38:31","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T12:38:31","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2019-06-15T14:08:37","modified_gmt":"2019-06-15T14:08:37","slug":"re-k-deceased","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lawteacher.net\/cases\/re-k-deceased.php","title":{"rendered":"Re K (deceased) [1985]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Re K (deceased) [1985] Ch 85, ChD<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Joint Tenancy \u2013 Severance \u2013 Manslaughter \u2013 Forfeiture<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"facts\">Facts<\/h3>\n<p>A husband and wife were in a marriage marred by domestic abuse.\u00a0 The wife had suffered physical violence for a long period.\u00a0 Upon being attacked by her husband she picked up a loaded shotgun and took off the safety catch intending to threaten him.\u00a0 Unfortunately, she accidently shot and killed him.\u00a0 She was tried for murder and being found guilty instead of manslaughter.\u00a0 The husband had bequeathed her \u00a31,000.\u00a0 The husband\u2019s estate wished to rely on the provisions of the <strong>Forfeiture Act 1982 <\/strong>to ensure that the joint tenancy was severed and the husband\u2019s beneficial interest vest in his estate.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"issues\">Issues<\/h3>\n<p>Whether the wife was prevented from benefitting from her husband\u2019s will by the provisions of <strong>s2(2) Forfeiture Act 1982<\/strong>.\u00a0 Whether forfeiture resulted in the automatic severing of their joint tenancy.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"decision\">Decision\/Outcome<\/h3>\n<p>The court held that the wife could be relieved from the strict provisions of the <strong>Forfeiture Act 1982<\/strong> and that the Court had discretion to order relief where necessary.\u00a0 Whilst a threat of violence was sufficient for forfeiture to occur, taking into account the wife\u2019s financial position and the extreme hardship this order would cause, and taking into account the conduct of the parties themselves, it was right for the court to exercise its discretion under <strong>s2(2) Forfeiture Act 1982 <\/strong>and so to order relief from this.\u00a0 Severance of a joint tenancy would occur in the event of a beneficiary unlawfully killing another beneficiary as had happened in this case, but the Court felt it right to exercise its discretion to modify the effect of the rule and ensure that the joint tenancy remained un-severed in this case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A husband and wife were in a marriage marred by domestic abuse. The wife had suffered physical violence&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85],"class_list":["post-6156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cases","tag-uk-law"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Re K (deceased) [1985] | LawTeacher.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A husband and wife were in a marriage marred by domestic abuse. 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