## Facts

- Frank J. Billotti and his wife, Carolyn Sue Billotti, owned three parcels of real property: one as tenants in common (no survivorship) and two as joint tenants with right of survivorship.
- On October 9, 1982, Frank murdered Carolyn and their two daughters.
- Carolyn died intestate; her heirs were Frank and her parents, Andrew and Virginia Lakatos.
- Frank was convicted and sentenced to life without parole; he died in prison in 1996.
- After the murders, Frank executed deeds affecting the joint-tenancy parcels:
  - In 1982, he conveyed the two joint-tenancy parcels to his mother, Rose Ann Billotti, without consideration.
  - In 1990, Rose conveyed the parcels to a straw grantee who contemporaneously reconveyed them to Frank and Rose as joint tenants.
- The Lakatoses sued seeking partition, contending the slayer statute and public policy prevented Frank (and those claiming through him) from acquiring the joint-tenancy parcels by survivorship.

## Issues

1. Whether W. Va. Code § 42-4-2 bars a joint tenant who feloniously kills a cotenant from acquiring the property by right of survivorship.
2. If the statute applies, whether the joint-tenancy property passes to those who would have taken had the slayer been dead at the victim’s death, and whether later conveyances can defeat that result.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia reversed the denial of partition as to the two joint-tenancy parcels.
- The court held that the phrase “or otherwise” in W. Va. Code § 42-4-2 includes taking by joint tenancy with right of survivorship.
- The court ruled that, upon the victim’s death, the jointly held estate passes to the persons who would have taken if the slayer had predeceased the victim.
- Applying that rule, the joint-tenancy parcels passed entirely to Carolyn’s heirs (the Lakatoses), and neither Frank, his estate, nor Rose took any interest.
- To the extent State ex rel. Miller v. Sencindiver was inconsistent with this interpretation, it was overruled.

## Legal Principles

- W. Va. Code § 42-4-2 prevents a person convicted of feloniously killing another from acquiring property from the victim “by descent and distribution, will, ... insurance, or otherwise.”
- “Or otherwise” is construed broadly to include any method of taking property from the victim, including acquisition by survivorship in a joint tenancy.
- When a joint tenant murders a cotenant, the statute governs distribution and treats the slayer as having died before the victim for purposes of transfer.
- Parties claiming through the slayer cannot obtain a better title than the slayer could lawfully receive; post-killing conveyances do not displace the statute’s mandated transfer.

## Conclusion

West Virginia’s slayer statute applies to joint tenancies with survivorship, barring a murdering joint tenant from taking the property by survivorship and requiring the property to pass to the persons who would have taken if the slayer had predeceased the victim.


Lakatos v. Estate of Billotti, 509 S.E.2d 594 (W. Va. 1998)