Legal battles slow down settlement of wealthy Atlanta businesswoman’s estate.
Manslaughter charges, challenges and debts have slowed down the settlement of an estate in Georgia, according to Private Wealth in “Estate in Limbo after Atlanta Man Is Charged with Killing His Rich Wife.”
The situation developed when Diane McIver, a well-known and wealthy businesswoman from Atlanta, was sitting in the front passenger seat of a vehicle being driven by her friend in the fall of 2016.
Her husband Claude McIver was sitting in the vehicle directly behind her. He claims that he had a gun in his lap because they were driving in a bad neighborhood. According to him, the car hit a bump in the road, which startled him and caused him to accidentally discharge the weapon killing his wife. The driver of the vehicle says the car was stopped, when she heard the gun go off.
Claude McIver has been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
If that was not enough to make administering the estate difficult, one of Diane McIver’s companies is suing her estate. The company claims that it loaned $1 million to one of her other companies that she personally guaranteed.
The exact details of Diane McIver’s will are not known.
Ordinarily, her husband would be entitled to some portion of her estate. However, people who kill someone are not typically allowed to inherit from their victims. That would mean that another heir would need to be found.
Of course, depending on the results of the lawsuit filed against the estate by the company, there might be nothing left for anyone to inherit. This is especially true, if more debts are found to exist.
Reference: Private Wealth (Feb. 2, 2017) “Estate in Limbo after Atlanta Man Is Charged with Killing His Rich Wife.”
