Oregon, like many states, has on its books a “slayer statute,” which generally prohibits a slayer or abuser of a decedent from obtaining benefits by virtue of the death of the decedent. The parents of Julianne Herinckx sought to enforce the Oregon slayer statute and preclude their daughter’s murderers from receiving life insurance benefits payable
Slayer Statute
Life Insurance Beneficiary Who Murdered Policyholder Is Not Entitled To Benefits
By Joseph Clark on
Applying the common law “slayer rule,” a federal district court in New York held that a beneficiary of an ERISA-governed life insurance plan forfeit his claim to insurance proceeds after he pled guilty to murdering the policyholder. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Little, E.D.N.Y., No. 13-cv-1059-BMC, Aug. 17, 2013. The policy holder, Rosemary Little,…