Page:Wright v. Wright.pdf/3

] The chancellor denied appellant's petition that he be declared the sole owner of the lands in question and concluded that an undivided one-half interest in the lands should be confirmed in the appellee, Glenn Madison Wright, a minor, subject to the dower interest of his mother, appellee Lynda Davis Wright. The court further found by a preponderance of the evidence that Leslie Wright murdered both of his parents.

For reversal the appellant contends that the court erred in failing to hold that on the basis of sound public policy the appellees could not inherit or participate in the Wright estate. To the contrary, the appellees contend that the question of intestate succession is governed exclusively by our statutes of descent and distribution. Ark. Stat. Ann. § 61-101 et seq. (1947). Appellees assert that those statutes impose no restrictions upon the right of a killer to inherit from the ancestral estate of his victim. They cite § 61-230 as the only limitation. Also relied upon is Barnes v. Cooper, Adm'x., 204 Ark. 118, 161 S.W.2d 8 (1942). This statute specifically bars dower or curtesy rights where one spouse murders another spouse. Therefore, say appellees, in the case at bar the son is not barred from sharing in his parents' estate since there is an absence of an express statutory limitation. We do not so construe our statutes or the law.

In Smith v. Dean 226 Ark. 438, 290 S.W.2nd 439 (1956), a widow who had been convicted of murdering her husband sought title to her husband's entire estate. There we held that § 1-230 was intended by the legislature as a restriction or limitation upon the dower or curtesy rights between the spouses where one murders the other. We allowed her to recover the widow's statutory allowance since that item was not expressly prohibited by the statute. However, there we find this meaningful language:

"Apart from statute, however, it is a familiar principle of law that one who wrongfully kills another is not permitted to share in the other's estate, to collect insurance on his life, or otherwise