Estate Planning

She Killed Him For His Batman Collection

By Hull and Hull LLP

Over the weekend, I was reading some international publications, when I came across a rather interesting article in The New York Times about Ben Novack Jr., and his Batman collection.  Novack is said to have the second largest, Batman themed collection, in the country.  To give you an idea of how big this collection is, Novack is said to have a full-size replica of the Batmobile!

About one year ago, Novack was found murdered at a hotel in New York, where he was staying with his wife.  The hotel records showed that no one had entered the hotel room with a key before the killing of Novack.  Novack's wife reported to the police that "she went down to breakfast about 7 a.m., leaving him asleep. When she returned 40 minutes later, she said, she found him bound and bloody on the floor."  Given the hotel records, and other circumstantial evidence, the police did not believe Novack's wife. 

It is reported that her goal was to seize control of Novack's fortune.  How much was his estate worth? $5-6 million dollars! 

Earlier this year in February, a Florida judge named Ms. Novack as the personal representative of Novack's estate before reversing the decision three days later. He ordered her to post a high bond before becoming personal representative, but Novack's wife never posted the bond.

The article does not mention whether Ms. Novack was convicted with the murder of her husband, however, in Ontario the Forfeiture Rule is well founded law for beneficiaries who perpetrate a criminal act against the testator.  The Forfeiture Rule was quoted in Re Benson Estate,  "A sane person who commits murder is debarred by public policy from taking any benefit under the Will or intestacy of his victim."

Thank you for reading,

Rick Bickhram
 

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on August 30, 2010 (boomark / email).