Constructive trust
Sec. 12.1. (a) A person is a constructive trustee of any property
that is acquired by the person or that the person is otherwise entitled
to receive as a result of an individual's death, including property from
a trust, if that person has been found guilty, or guilty but mentally ill,
of murder, causing suicide, or voluntary manslaughter, because of the
individual's death. A judgment of conviction is conclusive in a
subsequent civil action to have the person declared a constructive
trustee.
(b) A civil action may be initiated to have a person declared a
constructive trustee of property that is acquired by the person, or that
the person is otherwise entitled to receive, including property from
a trust, as a result of an individual's death, if:
(1) the person has been charged with murder, causing suicide,
or voluntary manslaughter, because of the individual's death;
and
(2) the person has been found not responsible by reason of
insanity at the time of the crime.
If a civil action is initiated under this subsection, the court shall
declare that the person is a constructive trustee of the property if by
a preponderance of the evidence it is determined that the person
killed or caused the suicide of the individual.
(c) If a constructive trust is established under this section, the
property that is subject to the trust may be used only to benefit those
persons, other than the constructive trustee, legally entitled to the
property, determined as if the constructive trustee had died
immediately before the decedent. However, if any property that the
constructive trustee acquired as a result of the decedent's death has
been sold to an innocent purchaser for value who acted in good faith,
that property is no longer subject to the constructive trust, but the
property received from the purchaser under the transaction becomes
subject to the constructive trust.
As added by P.L.147-1984, SEC.1. Amended by P.L.272-1985,
SEC.1; P.L.238-2005, SEC.4.
Last modified: May 27, 2006