The Provincial Court of Granada has resolved a family dispute over an inheritance, in which the nephew of the deceased He claimed 34,285.71 euros from his cousins claiming that they corresponded to his part of the inheritance, according to the will. The conflict revolved around a home that was sold by his sole heir aunt in the first instance, which dissolved the object of the legacy according to justice and the premiums would not have to be paid to her.
According to the March 2024 ruling, the nephew argued that his uncles’ inheritance included half the value of said property, although it no longer existed at the time of the division of the inheritance. To this end, he provided as evidence the wills of his uncles dated 1993 in which it was stipulated that when both died a part of the estate would be assigned to the nephews in a residue trust. This type of trust conditions it so that “when the trustee dies, assets that he has not disposed of remain in the inheritance or trust legacy,” as defined in the pan-Hispanic dictionary of legal Spanish.
The cousins argued that The property had been sold in 2017, and when the inheritance was awarded in 2019, it was found that the legacy did not exist.a fact that, according to the defendants, invalidated any subsequent claim. However, his cousin filed a lawsuit in which he requested that the will be fulfilled and stated that his cousins had kept the money from the sale of the property that belonged to him.
Justice agrees with the premiums and considers that there is no legal basis for said claim
After the demand, The Court of First Instance No. 11 of Granada admitted the claim and ordered the premiums to pay the 34,285.71 euros. that they claimed, considering the wills issued in 1993 supported the claim, but they, not satisfied with the decision, appealed to the Provincial Court.
In this new phase of the judicial process, the Court once again examined the wills, the 2019 partition deed and the applicable legal provisions. One of the key points was article 675 of the Civil Code, which regulates the interpretation of testamentary provisions and establishes that these must be fulfilled according to the manifest will of the testator. In addition, article 793 of the same code, relating to residue trusts, was analyzed.
The Court concluded that the plaintiff’s aunt had acted within her legal powers when selling the property in 2017, exercising the “absolute freedom of disposition” which conferred on her her status as universal heir. The court emphasizes that “the property did not exist at the death of the trustee, and, therefore, the actor could not receive the legacy under the terms established in the will granted by the deceased on March 24, 1993.”
Another relevant aspect was the nephew’s participation in the 2019 partition deed, where He accepted the awards and recognized that the legacy had become void. In this document it was declared according to the sentence that “the interested parties, present and/or represented, accept the previous awards, and the other clauses of this deed, stating that they have nothing to pay or claim against each other, due to said awards.”
Finally, the court stressed that “There is not a single piece of evidence” to prove that his cousins had retained any money, since it was not left as a legacy in the will “no amount of money consisting of half the value or sale price of a property”
For all this, in the ruling, the Provincial Court revoked the initial sentence, dismissing the lawsuit, and resolving that the premiums would not have to pay the 34,285.71 euros that he claimed.