## Facts

- Caroline Sharkey, an Ohio widow, died intestate owning real property.
- Under Ohio’s statute of descents, her only child, Elmer Sharkey, was the sole heir and would take the estate in fee.
- After Caroline’s death, Elmer mortgaged portions of the inherited real property to Thomas Millikin and other lenders to secure debts.
- Elmer was later convicted of murdering Caroline and was executed.
- Caroline’s siblings (including Malinda Deem) sued the mortgagees, claiming Elmer should be treated as incapable of inheriting because of the murder, making his mortgages void and shifting the estate to collateral heirs.

## Issues

1. Whether, under Ohio’s statute of descents, an heir who intentionally kills the intestate decedent is disqualified from inheriting absent an express statutory provision.
2. Whether mortgages granted by that heir on inherited real property remain valid liens against claims by collateral relatives.

## Decision

- The court held that Elmer inherited his mother’s real estate as the sole statutory heir despite the homicide.
- The court declined to recognize an implied public-policy disqualification not stated in the descent statute.
- Because Elmer took title, his mortgages to Millikin and the other lenders were valid security interests.
- The collateral relatives took no interest that could defeat the mortgagees’ liens.

## Legal Principles

- Statutes of descent and distribution govern intestate succession as written; courts will not add disqualifications absent statutory text.
- Title to intestate real property vests in the statutory heir at the decedent’s death (subject to administration), and later misconduct does not retroactively negate vesting unless the law so provides.
- General equitable or public-policy maxims cannot be used to rewrite clear succession statutes by implying a “slayer” exception.
- When the heir holds legal title under the statute, third-party encumbrances (such as mortgages) executed by the heir are effective against later claims by collateral relatives.

## Conclusion

The court upheld inheritance by a matricidal heir because Ohio’s descent statute contained no express disqualification, and it enforced the heir’s mortgages as valid liens, leaving any change to the legislature rather than judicial creation of a “slayer” rule.


Deem v. Millikin, 6 Ohio Cir. Ct. 357 (Ohio Cir. Ct. 1892)