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Recently, the United Kingdom and Canada made the news regarding the estates of two violent citizens. In April, Gabriel Wortman died after he shot 22 people in Nova Scotia. Many consider the shooting the worst in Canadian history. Last week, in the United Kingdom, a judge ruled that Sally Challen would be allowed to inherit from the estate of Richard Challen, her dead spouse. Sally killed Richard in 2010 after decades of abuse. She was thereafter convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Last year, her murder conviction was overturned, and the act was deemed to be manslaughter. Her reduced sentence was credited with time served, and she has been set free.
During her court cases, Challen argued that she suffered from years of abuse by her husband, whom she killed by repeatedly beating him with a hammer. The defense team claimed that she was the victim of coercive control and suffered psychiatric illness as a result of the violent and consistent abuse.
The Slayer Rule is a common law doctrine wherein one who murders another cannot inherit under the decedent’s estate, whether it be through the laws of intestacy or the law of wills and trusts. In practice, the application of the Slayer Rule is complicated in cases where abuse is present, and questions will often arise as to whether the death was murder, manslaughter, or some form of self-defense. By Challen’s conviction changing from murder to manslaughter, she was able to reap the benefit of the inheritance laws.
In Challen’s case, she successfully challenged the murder conviction, which resulted in not only a mitigation of punishment, but an inheritance. Judge Paul Matthews, in his decision, noted the extreme and terrible conditions under which Challen was abused and also emphasized that every situation has its own set of facts. In this case, he stated that the circumstances were extraordinary and that the decedent certainly contributed to his own death.
Prior to Wortman’s mass shooting and arson of several Nova Scotian houses, he physically assaulted his common law wife. On the day of the killing spree, he attacked her and tied her up. When the spouse escaped from captivity, she ran to a neighbor’s house and reported Wortman to the police, warning them that he had firearms. Wortman was shot dead at a gas station following his killing of 22 people.
Wortman collected police memorabilia, including police cars and uniforms. He used a car marked Royal Canadian Mounted Police in his shootings and even wore parts of the police uniform.
Wortman, who was a denturist, had a sizable estate, consisting of about $1.2 million in real property as well as savings accounts. He wrote a last will and testament in 2011 and named his common law wife as his executor and sole beneficiary. She has since renounced her role as executor. The Public Trustee will serve instead. Witnesses report that there was a history of abuse in their relationship.
Questions also remain as to where the firearms were acquired, although it is believed that he received them from a deceased friend. Some have stated that Wortman was paranoid as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
There also exists a proposed class-action lawsuit seeking damages from Wortman’s estate. The case claims that Wortman’s estate is liable to the families of the victims. Nicholas Beaton is the representative plaintiff because his pregnant wife, Kristen Beaton, unlike Wortman’s and Challen’s widows, did not survive.
Cori A. Robinson is a solo practitioner having founded Cori A. Robinson PLLC, a New York and New Jersey law firm, in 2017. For more than a decade Cori has focused her law practice on trusts and estates and elder law including estate and Medicaid planning, probate and administration, estate litigation, and guardianships. She can be reached at cori@robinsonestatelaw.com.