## Facts

- F. Earl Hurff killed his wife, Edith Kollmer Hurff, on July 31, 1950, later pleading non vult to second-degree murder and being imprisoned.
- During the marriage, the spouses owned a residence in New Jersey as tenants by the entirety and held certain corporate shares as joint tenants.
- Edith’s will named the Damon Runyon Memorial Fund for Cancer Research, Inc. as her sole beneficiary.
- Alberta A. Neiman, as executrix, sought court direction on rights in the jointly held stock and sought judgment on three alleged loans totaling $2,500.
- The Damon Runyon Fund sought a decree that the real property and jointly held stock be held in trust for it and that Hurff be ordered to convey them.
- Hurff claimed survivorship gave him full ownership, disputed the loan balance (asserting no more than $500 was owed), and asserted a $1,771 lien against the stock for purchase advances.

## Issues

1. Whether a spouse who intentionally kills the other spouse may take the victim’s interest by survivorship in property held as tenants by the entirety or joint tenants.
2. Whether equity should impose a constructive trust on the survivor’s title to prevent profiting from the killing, and how the beneficial interests should be allocated.
3. How the killer’s asserted debt and lien claims should be treated in an action allocating interests in jointly held property after the homicide.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of New Jersey held that a killer may not obtain the beneficial gain of survivorship from property held as tenants by the entirety or joint tenants.
- The court treated the survivor’s legal title as subject to a constructive trust in favor of the decedent’s beneficiary, limiting the survivor’s beneficial interest.
- The court affirmed the equitable constructive-trust approach but modified aspects of the trial court’s allocation/valuation methodology and related financial determinations, and remanded for further proceedings consistent with its opinion.

## Legal Principles

- Equity applies the principle that no person may profit from their own wrongdoing; this public policy limits property interests otherwise conferred by survivorship.
- Where survivorship would vest legal title in a slayer, equity may leave legal title in the survivor but impose a constructive trust to prevent unjust enrichment.
- Remedial allocation should aim to prevent the slayer from being better off because of the killing while preserving only those interests and claims the slayer held independent of the wrongful act.

## Conclusion

A spouse who kills the other spouse cannot enjoy survivorship benefits in tenancy-by-the-entirety or joint-tenancy property; the survivor takes legal title subject to a constructive trust protecting the victim’s intended beneficiary, with the trial court’s remedy subject to equitable adjustment on valuation and related claims.


Neiman v. Hurff, 93 A.2d 345 (N.J. 1952)