The slaying, which happened three years ago in Nova Scotia, resulted in competing claims
A Cape Breton man will receive 100% of his wife’s life insurance policy after he was found not criminally responsible for killing her in 2017, according to a report by CBC.
Richard Maidment, who suffers from schizophrenia, killed his wife Sarabeth Forbes in Gardiner Mines Nova Scotia in April 2017. He was charged with first degree murder but found to be not criminally responsible as he was in a psychotic state at the time.
In a potentially landmark ruling for life insurance payouts, a judge ruled that Maidment was entitled to the entirety of Forbes’ life insurance payout.
The report said that Maidment was named as the primary beneficiary of a life insurance policy purchased by his common-law wife in 2015. Their son was an alternate beneficiary. Maidment’s mother claimed the insurance payout on behalf of her son, who resides in a secure psychiatric facility in Dartmouth.
Forbes’ mother claimed the payout on behalf of her grandson, who she now raises. With two competing claims, Co-operators Life Insurance put the question before a judge.
"There is a public policy rule which says criminals should not be permitted to benefit from their crimes," Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Frank Edwards wrote in his ruling on the matter. "That public policy rule has no application to this case. Richard has been found to be not criminally responsible. He is not a criminal."
The ruling states that the payout will not go to Maidment and Forbes’ son, but didn’t detail the amount of the payment.
