HB 7142 — AN ACT ESTABLISHING A CAUSE OF ACTION FOR TORTIOUS INTERFERENCE WITH THE RIGHT OF AN INHERITANCE.

House of Representatives General Assembly RaisedFile Bill No.

7142805 January Session, 2025 LCOHouse Bill No.

58827142 ReferredHouse toof Representatives, April 29, 2025 The Committee on JUDICIARYJudiciary Introducedreported by:through REP.

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AN ACT ESTABLISHING A CAUSE OF ACTION FOR TORTIOUS INTERFERENCE WITH THE RIGHT OF AN INHERITANCE.

LCOHB7142 5882/ 1File of 2 Raised Bill No.

7142805 This1 actHB7142 shallFile takeNo. effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:

Section805 1This Octoberact 1,shall 2025take Neweffect sectionas JUDfollows Jointand Favorableshall LCOamend 5882the 2following ofsections: 2

Section 1 October 1, 2025 New section JUD Joint Favorable HB7142 / File No.

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805 The following Fiscal Impact Statement and Bill Analysis are prepared for the benefit of the members of the General Assembly, solely for purposes of information, summarization and explanation and do not represent the intent of the General Assembly or either chamber thereof for any purpose.

In general, fiscal impacts are based upon a variety of informational sources, including the analyst’s professional knowledge.

Whenever applicable, agency data is consulted as part of the analysis, however final products do not necessarily reflect an assessment from any specific department.

OFA Fiscal Note State Impact:

None Municipal Impact:

None Explanation The bill creates a civil cause of action for tortious interference with the right of an inheritance and is not anticipated to result in a fiscal impact.

The court system disposes of over 250,000 cases annually and the number of cases is not anticipated to be great enough to need additional resources.

The Out Years State Impact:

None Municipal Impact:

None HB7142 / File No.

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805 OLR Bill Analysis HB 7142 AN ACT ESTABLISHING A CAUSE OF ACTION FOR TORTIOUS INTERFERENCE WITH THE RIGHT OF AN INHERITANCE.

SUMMARY This bill creates a civil cause of action for tortious interference with the right of an inheritance by allowing a person to bring an action in Superior Court against someone the person believes obstructed an expected inheritance.

An aggrieved person may seek to recover damages, costs, and a reasonable attorney’s fee.

The bill also creates a three-year statute of limitations within which the aggrieved person may bring an action, starting from the date of the alleged tortious act.

The bill allows someone to bring an action for tortious interference with an expected inheritance if the following conditions are met:

1.

the person has an expectation of receiving an inheritance, 2.

another person has knowledge of the expected inheritance and engages in conduct that demonstrates an intent to interfere with the expected inheritance, 3.

that other person’s conduct was tortious (i.e.

a wrongful act or infringement of a right) causing the expected inheritance to fail, and 4.

the person bringing the action suffered actual economic loss because of the other person’s tortious conduct.

State law does not currently provide for this cause of action.

However, tortious interference with an expected inheritance is recognized as a valid cause of action in the Restatement of the Law Second, Torts and is also generally recognized by the Superior Court.

HB7142 / File No.

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805 Additionally, the Connecticut Supreme Court recently specified the common law elements of the tort in a recent case before it, which are substantially similar to the elements outlined under the bill (see BACKGROUND).

EFFECTIVE DATE:

October 1, 2025 BACKGROUND Restatement of the Law Second, Torts The restatement specifies that a person is liable to another person for loss of inheritance or gift, if the person, by fraud, duress, or other tortiousmean,intentionally preventstheother personfromreceiving an inheritance they would otherwise have received (Restatement (Second) of Torts § 774B).

Markowitz et al.