The Provincial Court of Navarra has condemned an heiress to pay 4,267.48 euros for the funeral expenses of her brother’s burial, although she did not directly hire the service. Justice considers that, as the unique heiress of the deceased, he must respond with the value of the assets of the inheritanceby virtue of the regime of liability “intra viés” of Navarrese law.
According to the judgment of July 31, 2025, after the death of her brother, the funeral home claimed another sister, who was the one who had hired them, the payment of the funeral expenses, but, when she verified that she was the unique heiress, he directed a monitoring procedure against her (for which the monetary debts are claimed) to pay the pending amount.
You may be interested
A daughter gets the house that her mother had already donated to her from the distribution of heritage: the rest of the sisters are left without their part
He draws 122,931.67 euros from his sister’s inheritance before he dies not to pay the inheritance tax and justice confirms that he cannot renounce her
Although he opposed, claiming that the services had not been hired by her, the Court of First Instance No. 6 of Pamplona estimated that he should pay them, although the deadline to claim the debt from the funeral home had already prescribed because more than 5 years had passed.
The heiress has to pay even if the service does not hire directly
The Provincial Court of Navarra completely revoked the sentence. In the first place, he considered the calculation of the prescription of the claim period, and that although the service was provided in October 2018, the extrajudicial claim made on October 25, 2022 validly interrupted the term, in accordance with article 1973 of the Civil Code, having been sent by letter certified with acknowledgment of receipt, received by the heiress on October 26, 2022.
In addition, he understood that, although the firm was made by another sister, the request for funeral services was made on behalf of family members as possible heirs, which generates an obligation to third parties. Specifically, an commission sheet was provided where it was “the incineration of said corpse has been requested by its relatives”, which evidenced family involvement in the order.
The hearing bases its decision on the hereditary responsibility regime of Navarrese law, which is of intra vires, in accordance with Law 318 Foral de Navarra (FN) and previous sentences issued by the Chamber (Jur 2020, 299560). Under this rule, the heiress has to respond to the creditors with the value of the inherited goods, although it has not been directly hired.
He also recalled that funeral expenses are considered a burden of inheritance in accordance with Law 315 and 318 FN, so they must be assumed by those who accept it, unless expressly resigned, which does not appear in this case.
For all this, she condemned the heiress to pay the 4,267.48 euros of her brother’s funeral expenses, more interest, in a sentence that was firm and without the possibility of appeal.