Case Notes

A Pennsylvania appeals court determined that a trial court properly dismissed a separated husband's petition to strike his deceased wife's sister's claim to the decedent's estate. The husband and the decedent had been separated for years, and the decedent had begun divorce proceedings prior to her death. The appellant husband had forfeited his right to share in the decedent's estate due to his extramarital affairs during the separation. In re Estate of Talerico, PICS Case No. 16-0386 (Pa. Super. March 18, 2016) Panella, J. (10 pages).

The couple were married in 2006 and resided in a house owned solely by the decedent wife. In 2010, the husband moved out of the house and in 2011 the wife began divorce proceedings, though the divorce was not finalized prior to her death in 2014. Pennsylvania's 20 Pa.C.S.A. ' 2106(a) calls for forfeiture of a spouse's share if “for one year or upwards previous to the death of the other spouse, (that spouse) has willfully neglected or refused to perform the duty to support the other spouse”; or if that spouse “for one year or upwards has willfully and maliciously deserted the other spouse,” that spouse “shall have no right or interest under this chapter in the real or personal estate of the other spouse.” Under this code section, all that need be shown, in addition to the neglect element, is that the decedent spouse was a domiciliary of Pennsylvania at the time of death, grounds for divorce had been established, yet the divorce had not yet been finalized.