PROVIDENCE, RI -- The grown children of David Swain, who was found civilly liable for causing the drowning death of his wife, Shelley Tyre, won't be allowed to inherit any money from their stepmother's estate, even though Tyre named them as contingent beneficiaries in her will.
AP file photo
A divided state Supreme Court, in a 3-to-2 decision issued Thursday, ruled that the Rhode Island Slayer's Act prohibits Jeremy and Jennifer Swain from inheriting what remains in Tyre's estate -- just $5,571.99.
The majority -- Gilbert V. Indeglia, Maureen McKenna Goldberg and Chief Justice Paul A. Suttell -- said that "the notion that a person should not profit or benefit from his or her own wrong derives from common law" and was later cemented in case law.
The legislature intended The Rhode Island Slayer's Act to be interpreted broadly, they said.
David Swain stands with his daughter Jennifer Swain Bloom, right, after his release from prison in Tortola, British Virgin Islands in September 2011.