Property

Prevention of Benefit from Homicide

In this 2015 report, the Law Reform Commission recommends comprehensive legislative reform to implement the general principle that a person should be prevented from benefitting from his or her wrongdoing, especially an act of homicide, and that no cause of action should arise from one’s own wrongful act. 

This is to ensure that the principles are applied not only under succession law but also to prevent an offender benefitting in any other context, whether under a joint tenancy or, for example, a life insurance policy or a pension. 

Summary of Recommendations:

Recommended amendment of Civil Liability Act 1961 to prevent person who commits murder, attempted murder or manslaughter obtaining benefit from any property of the victim, whether in the victim's estate or in any other property (including in joint tenancy, insurance or pension).

The Report recommends that the current law should be reformed, including where it applies to a joint tenant who kills his or her spouse who was also a joint tenant at the time of death, which arose in the High Court in 2011 in Cawley v Lillis.

https://publications.lawreform.ie/Portal/External/en-GB/RecordView/Index/37527

In the 2023 report : Study on Familicide & Domestic and Family Violence Death Reviews

7.3.14.7 : There is an element of premeditation in the commission of many crimes. In a relationship where coercive control is present, there is often a perpetrator intent to control the victim’s finances and property. It is conceivable that such a desire to control could extend to actions that disinherit the victim or his or her heirs.