Dunbar v Plant
The forfeiture rule applied to the survivor of a suicide pact who had aided and abetted her partner's suicide, but the court granted full relief from forfeiture under the Forfeiture Act 1982.
Facts
Miss Plant and her fiancé, Mr Dunbar, entered into a suicide pact, when she was facing criminal charges. They both attempted to take their own lives, but she survived. She was not prosecuted. Under the forfeiture rule, a person who unlawfully kills another may not benefit from the death, and aiding and abetting a suicide was a criminal offence. The question was whether she could take the proceeds of an insurance policy on Mr Dunbar's life and his share of their house.
Legal principle
The Court of Appeal held that the forfeiture rule applied, because Miss Plant had aided and abetted Mr Dunbar's suicide, which was an offence under section 2 of the Suicide Act 1961. However, the majority held that she should be granted full relief from the rule under the Forfeiture Act 1982, because the justice of the case required it. Mummery LJ said that the court should take into account the conduct of the offender and of the deceased and the other material circumstances, and that the offence was not one of violence or deliberate malice, but of desperation, in which she had herself been the victim of a tragedy. She was entitled to the insurance proceeds and the house.
Related cases on family provision, forfeiture and other claims against estates
- Re Basham (Deceased) [1986] 1 WLR 1498
- Re Besterman (Deceased) [1984] Ch 458
- Re Callaghan [1985] Fam 1
- Re Coventry (Deceased) [1980] Ch 461
- Cowan v Foreman [2019] EWCA Civ 1336, [2020] Fam 129
- Gillett v Holt [2001] Ch 210
- Guest v Guest [2022] UKSC 27
- Ilott v The Blue Cross [2017] UKSC 17, [2018] AC 545
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