The Supreme Court has proved a grandson who asked to include in his grandmother’s inheritance several farms he had given in life to other relatives, considering that these donations could reduce the part that corresponded by law. The High Court understands that the goods donated to Ezequiel, grandson of the deceased Patricia, must be counted to calculate the legitimate one, although the deceased would have indicated that they should not be returned or taken into account in the cast. The sentence clarifies that these donations should be added to hereditary heritage to correctly calculate the legitimate and guarantee the rights of all legal beneficiaries.
As explained by the STS 1226/2025 judgment (which can be consulted in this link to the Judiciary) The conflict begins with the death of Patricia in 2017. The woman had made a Donation in life of several rustic farms among their children and grandchildren, in which it included a “dispensation of collation” and described them as “express improvement” attributable to thirds of improvement and free disposition. To understand it, this means that according to writing, these assets should not join the distribution of inheritance.
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Ezekiel, who was one of the grandchildren and forced heir, thought that these donations could reduce their legitimate (it is the minimum part that the law reserves to certain heirs) and that is why, he asked that they be included in the inventory of the inheritance to correctly calculate its quota, that is, thus breaking its grandmother’s will.
The position of this grandson, relied on what article 818 of the Civil Code says, which forces to compute all donations, including collation dispenses, to determine the legitimate one. “The deceased can dispense from the collation, but not preventing them from being computed to calculate the legitimate one,” he then explains the Supreme Court in his ruling.
Given this situation, the heirs did not agree, since they said that the exclusion of the farms was the express will of the grandmother, so Ezekiel initiated a judicial procedure.
Donations in life also count to calculate the minimum part of the inheritance
After passing through the Provincial Court in which they were not right, Ezequiel decided to go to the Supreme Court. Once in the high body this explained that the Provincial Court had confused two different concepts. On the one hand, the collation and on the other, the computing of donations. As we have said, he explains that article 818 of the Civil Code forces to add all donations made by the deceased, even those that have collation dispensation, to calculate the legitimate one.
To explain why this decision, the Supreme recalled that collation is a distribution operation between forced heirs that can be dispensed by the testator, while computing is mandatory and serves to determine if the portion of goods reserved by law is respected. Thus, although Ezekiel’s grandmother ordered that the donated farms were not returned or taken into account in the cast, this did not prevent them from joining the hereditary flow to calculate whether the legitimate grandson was intact.
For all this, the Supreme Court gave the reason to Ezekiel and ordered to include the value of the properties donated in the inventory of the inheritance “for the purpose of computing the legitimate”, which makes Ezequiel receive the part that corresponded to him as a forced heir.