Pursuant to the provisions of the Civil Code, persons who are called to inherit statutory rights have certain rights in situations where they have not been mentioned in the will. They are then entitled to half the value of the inheritance share that would fall to them in the event of statutory inheritance. However, if the entitled person is permanently incapable of work or if the minor is entitled to the descendant, the amount due shall be increased to two-thirds of the value of that share.
This regulation is in line with the principle that no one can, in the event of his death, dispose of his property completely freely, apart from his loved ones. It can be said that the testator has a moral obligation towards his relatives. The purpose of such regulation is to protect the family against the decisions of the testator and is to serve a fair distribution of the estate.
However, the Civil Code also regulates the situation in which a close relative will be deprived of his full share due to his unworthy behavior. The preservation may be reduced and you will not even belong to a relative who:
- intentionally committed a serious crime against the testator or one of his closest relatives;
- tricked or threatened the testator to draw up or revoke a will or in the same way prevented him from doing one of these activities;
- intentionally hid or destroyed the testator’s will, forged or rewritten his will, or knowingly used a will by another person forged or forged
- against the will of the testator, he acted persistently in a manner contrary to the principles of social coexistence;
- persistently failed to fulfill his family obligations towards the testator.
The role of the court is then to balance the property interests of the testator’s immediate family member and the breach of social coexistence. In a situation where nobody has requested in time to deprive a reserved share of those entitled who have met any of the above conditions, it is possible to apply the clause of the rules of social coexistence contained in art. 5 of the Civil Code.
In its judgment of June 16, 2016, V CSK 625/15, the Supreme Court stated that it cannot be concluded that determining the premises of unworthiness of inheritance and disinheritance excludes the admissibility of a reduction of the reserved share due to the behavior contrary to the rules of social co-existence of the person entitled to a reserved share of the testator. In such situations, only by invoking the principles of social coexistence allows one to satisfy the public’s sense of justice, opposed to the award of full debts, and, exceptionally, a reserved share in general to a person on whom there are grounds to consider her unworthy of inheritance or there were grounds for her disinheritance. At the same time, the jurisprudence recognizes that the Court should not substitute for the will of the deceased person and by applying Article 5 of the Civil Code derive from the relationship of the legal heir to the testator applications that would lead to the same effect as if disinheritance had occurred.
As an example in which the application of this provision is possible, one can indicate a situation in which a child entitled to a reserved share did not look after the testator during his lifetime, but was not disinherited by him. Another example is the situation of ill-treatment of the father by his son, not being interested in his illness, absence at the funeral (Supreme Court judgment reference number V CSK 625/15).
Particularly noteworthy is the relationship between authorized holders and heirs. According to the case-law (judgment of the Court of Appeal in Szczecin of 27 March 2019, reference number I ACa 825/18), these relations need to be taken into account, but only as an additional one. Due to this, the difficult financial situation of the heir may be the basis for disregarding a request for a reserved share under Art. 5 of the Civil Code. When for a person included in a will this decline would be the only property, and he does not yet achieve his own income, the holder of the reserved share cannot claim it on the basis of social coexistence. Pursuant to the judgment of the District Court in Toruń (case file No. VIII Ca 78/16), the court may refuse to grant a request for a reserved share due to the principles of social coexistence may take place when a different decision would result in the heir being obliged to pay exceptional reserved shares ailments in the material sphere.