Carpenter's Estate

Citations

• 170 Pa. 203
• 32 A. 637
• 1895 Pa. LEXIS 1384

Syllabus

<p>Decedents' estates — Intestate law — Corruption of blood — Forfeiture of estate — Parricide's right to inherit his father's estate.</p> <p>The constitution of Pennsylvania positively prohibits any attaint of treason or' felony by the legislature, and any corruption of blood by reason of attainder, or any forfeiture of estate, except during the life of the offender; and the legislature has never imposed any penalty of corruption of-blood, or forfeiture of estate, for the crime of murder, and no such penalty has any legal existence.</p> <p>A son who has murdered his father for the purpose of securing his father’s estate, is entitled to take the estate under the intestate laws. His crime does not destroy his right of inheritance. Authorities based upon a fraudulent abuse of a contract right have no analogy to a case in which the law itself casts the descent.</p>