The Court of First Instance and Instruction No. 1 of Trujillo requires that the 200,000 euros withdrawn by several nephews after the death of their aunt be included in the inheritance, despite the fact that they claimed to have received them as living donation. It considers that said donation was not formally accredited and that, therefore, the amounts must be distributed among all co-heirs in accordance with the law.
According to the ruling of June 9, 2025, the aunt who died in 2017 left bank deposits in several Unicaja accounts. According to the nephews, he donated 4/5 of those funds to them in 2005, something they justified with a private contract and the joint ownership of accounts. After his death, they accessed that money and distributed it among themselves, considering that it was not part of the estate.
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However, another of the heirs challenged this interpretation and judicially requested that the funds be included in the inventory of the inheritance. He alleged that the money remained the property of his aunt at the time of her death and that there was no valid formal donation to justify its exclusion.
The money that their aunt donated to them has to be part of the inheritance
The court agreed with the plaintiff and ordered the bank deposits to be included in the inventory as collatable gifts, in accordance with article 1035 of the Civil Code, which obliges forced heirs to collate (that is, bring to the estate) the donations received from the deceased unless the latter provides otherwise in a clear and valid manner. In this case, there was no public deed of donation or express statement from the aunt to exclude that money from the distribution.
The ruling literally states that “the supporting documents and documents provided under the name of ‘donation agreements’ do not contain any expression of the will of the deceased in order to exclude such powers from the legal obligation of collation, nor were they formalized by public deed, nor is there evidence of their execution during her lifetime with immediate patrimonial effects.”
For this reason, although the nephews are obliged to compute said money in the inheritance to distribute among all the heirs. This measure, as the court recalls, aims to preserve equality between co-heirs and prevent some from charging more than others without justified cause.
The resolution was also based on article 1059 of the Civil Code, which establishes that if the heirs do not understand how to make the partition, it will be done in accordance with legal regulations, and on article 786.1 of the Civil Procedure Law, which indicates that the distribution must respect the legitimate rights of the forced heirs.
Despite all this, the sentence issued was not final and an appeal could be filed against it before the Provincial Court of Cáceres.