The wife of an executed mainland billionaire has become the sole heir to her husband's estate after winning a court battle against her 15-year-old stepson, mainland media reported yesterday.
A Beijing court passed all the assets of Yuan Baojing , who was executed last March along with his brother and cousin, to his Tibetan wife, Zhuoma, based on a verbal message the tycoon delivered to his family hours before being given a lethal injection. The judge said that, because the man had left no written will, his last words would be treated as a 'verbal will', Xinhua reported.
Yuan, whose personal worth was estimated at 3 billion yuan, was sentenced to death by the Intermediate People's Court in Liaoyang , Liaoning province, for hiring his brother and two cousins to kill a former police officer who had tried to blackmail him in October 2003. The police officer was said to have learned of Yuan's plan to assassinate a business partner. After his death, his son from the tycoon's first marriage demanded a share of his father's estate. His stepmother refused.
The teenager, whose name was not disclosed, had sued in Beijing No2 Intermediate People's Court. Xinhua said the court had rejected the boy's claim as the tycoon's dying words were uttered in the presence of court officials.
'[I] give all the properties to Zhuoma, and let her arrange it,' Yuan apparently said before being taken away for execution.
The court said that while it was unusual, mainland law stipulates that a person could make 'verbal will' under extreme circumstances. The court therefore ruled that Yuan's last words were legally binding.