ABSTRACT
This Comment explores how Texas’s common law constructive trust solution used to address the ‘slayer problem’ (the problem that occurs when a person kills an individual they would inherit from) has some substantial limitations and explains how this system would be enhanced by enacting a complementary slayer statute. The current constructive trust doctrine fails to adequately protect a victim’s heirs, is too variable in its application, and creates too much uncertainty. By adopting the slayer statute proposed in this Comment, or one similar, the Texas Legislature can better protect a victim’s estate and their heirs. The overall aim of this Comment is to create a hybrid solution to the slayer problem by combining the strengths of a slayer statute with the flexibility of the constructive trust doctrine.
Joseph W Padjune III, A Constructive Trust is Not Enough – Enacting a Slayer Statute to Better Protect a Decedent’s Heirs, 11 Texas A&M Journal of Property Law 411 (2025). Online 11 March 2025.
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