The Provincial Court of Barcelona has resolved the dispute over an inheritance, and condemns the heir as principal to pay the son of the deceased 24,665.55 euros that form part of his legitimate inheritance plus the legal interest generated since the judicial claim was made. This is evidenced by the ruling issued in November 2024, which puts an end to a process initiated by the son to claim his share of the inheritance, which initially amounted to more than 81,000 euros before deducting a partial payment made. for the heiress.
According to it, the problem arises from problems in calculating the legitimate part of the inheritance that corresponded to the son of the deceased. The Civil Code establishes how an inheritance is distributed, and a part of it, known as ‘the legitimate’, corresponds to the forced heirs. In this case, since the succession is regulated by eThe Catalan Civil Code, this establishes in its article 451-5 that the legitimate is equivalent to a quarter of the net value of the inheritance and it corresponds by right to the heirs, who in the case of this inheritance is the son of the deceased.
In his lawsuit, he alleged that the total value of his father’s inheritance was 325,223.06 euros, including an urban property, balance in bank accounts and some pictorial works. Based on this calculation, His legit should have been 81,305.76 eurosof which he had already received a partial payment of 56,640.21 euros made by the main heir. Therefore, He demanded payment of the legitimate supplement, which he calculated at 24,665.55 euros.along with legal interests since the death of his father.
Justice considers that the son has the right to receive the supplement of the legitimate
The claim was initially partially admitted by the Court of First Instance No. 5 of Igualada, which considered that The son was entitled to a supplement to his legitimate income in the amount of 24,665.55 euros. However, the costs of the process were not imposed, since both parties were considered to have contributed to generating the litigation.
It also established that according to article 451-14 of the Catalan CC, the legitimate supplement “accrues interest only from the time it is judicially claimed.”
Dissatisfied with the decision on costs, the son appealed with the argument that the claim had been admitted almost in its entirety and it was the Provincial Court that accepted it, revoking part of the initial sentence and condemning the main heir to pay the costs of the trial in addition to the legitimate amount of the inheritance that corresponds to her and the interest generated
According to the jurisprudential doctrine cited in the ruling, “For the application of the general principle of expiration, it must be considered that the adjustment of the ruling to what is requested must not be literal but substantial”. Thus, as the claim was substantially estimated, since the difference between what was claimed and what was granted was only 43.75 euros, this criterion of “substantial estimation” was applied to justify the imposition of costs on the main heir.
Regarding the supplement of the legitimate, the Court confirms that according to what is established in article 451-5 Catalan CC that the legitimate represents a quarter of the value of the inheritance, in this case the legitimate corresponded to 81,305.76 euros.
Regarding interest, it also confirms that this supplement accrues interest from the date of the judicial claim, according to article 451-14 of this same law and, therefore, the son must receive that compensation.