Husband-killer wins right to his cash
20.02.2003
By: Tony Koch
PART of the $350,000 estate of a Gold Coast pensioner bashed to death by his wife could be used to pay her murder trial legal costs.
The District Court has ruled $31,500 from the estate could go towards the legal costs.
Geoffrey Hill, 63, a retired NSW police prosecutor, was killed in his bed by his five-times married wife, Erlinda, at their Molendinar home on January 29, 1999.
She was charged with his murder, but was convicted of manslaughter after the Mental Health Tribunal established she had a mental disorder and suffered from depression.
The murder hearing was told Mrs Hill killed her husband and tried to kill herself because she wanted her daughter, Janine Lumbera, and two of her other children to inherit his estate.
Mr Hill's daughters from a previous marriage, Jennifer and Amanda Hill, challenged their father's will which had been drawn up just before his death.
Mr Damien Mullins, SC, ruled that the will would stand where it provided a legacy for Ms Lumbera.
Ms Lumbera had told the court that she was responsible for payments to solicitors for her mother's criminal defence including $20,000 to A.W. Bale and Sons; $7500 to Power and Power, and $4000 to Evans and Company.
Mr Mullins ruled that the payment of the legal fees for her mother was not conduct which disentitled her from benefiting from her stepfather's will.
At Hill's Supreme Court trial, Justice Ros Atkinson said it appeared Hill killed her husband to ensure the financial security of her children.
However, Hill had attempted suicide during the trial because she felt betrayed by them.
Justice Atkinson sentenced Hill to eight years' jail when the jury returned a guilty verdict on the lesser charge of manslaughter.
In the hearing on the will, Mr Mullins rejected submissions that Janine Lumbera had conspired with her mother to murder Geoffrey Hill.
``In my opinion there is no, or no sufficient, evidence such that Janine (Lumbera) was aware at any time of an intention by her mother to kill the deceased,'' Mr Mullins said.
He said there was no evidence of any such conspiracy, ``even if such an inference were open''.
Mr Mullins also said: ``I am not persuaded that fixing Janine with such knowledge necessarily extinguishes her entitlement.''
In regard to the payment of the legal fees, Mr Mullins said: ``Mr Clutterbuck (counsel for Jennifer and Amanda Hill) submits that Janine should not be permitted to resort to, or quarantine, her entitlements under the estate in order to extinguish her mother's liability in respect of legal fees.
``This is because payment of these sums is a benefit to the mother in circumstances where, as the submission proceeds, the law does not permit such payment to be made.''
Mr Mullins said he could not agree with the assertion that Janine's use of money from the estate to pay her mother's legal fees should change the intention of the will.
His final order was that Jennifer and Amanda Hill each receive $50,000, while Janine Lumbera will receive $80,000 from the estate.
