A German mother disinherited the son who attacked her, he killed her a month later, and two courts still awarded him his compulsory share

A widow had two sons. In 1982 her will named one of them sole heir. The other son had a schizophrenic psychosis and lived with her in her house. He attacked her repeatedly. After an attack on 13 January 1994 she made a new will on 20 January. It confirmed the first son as heir and took away the second son's compulsory share, the half of a statutory share that German law guarantees to children. On 18 February 1994 the second son killed her, cut up the body and hid the parts in a forest. A criminal court found him not culpable and ordered him held in a psychiatric hospital. He then sued his brother for the compulsory share. In 1998 the Cologne regional court awarded him 50,605.55 marks, holding that a share can only be taken away for culpable conduct. In 2000 the Cologne appeal court awarded 47,630.55 marks on the same ground. The brother took the case to the Federal Constitutional Court. On 19 April 2005 it held that a child's minimum share of a parent's estate is protected by the Basic Law, and that the Code's grounds for removing it are constitutional. It also held that the lower courts were wrong to require criminal culpability: a son who kills knowingly and willingly can lose the share. It quashed the appeal judgment and sent the case back. Section 2333 of the Code now lists a court-ordered psychiatric placement for a serious intentional act as a ground.