ATTENTION – THIS IS AN AUTOMATIC TRANSLATION from Polish
In its decision of May 31, 2024, the Regional Court in Krakow referred a legal issue to the Supreme Court for resolution: is a guardian appointed in proceedings to confirm the acquisition of inheritance for a person whose place of residence is unknown entitled to submit a declaration of acceptance or rejection of inheritance on their behalf?
In the case in question, the Municipality of K. applied for confirmation of inheritance after a certain deceased person. In the course of the proceedings, it was established that the deceased had three sisters, but the places of residence of two of them could not be determined. The municipality applied for the appointment of a guardian ad litem for these two participants as persons of unknown whereabouts.
Due to the fact that the heirs did not submit a declaration of acceptance of the inheritance (because their place of residence was not established), it was not possible to determine the correct circle of heirs. Therefore, the District Court issued a decision to suspend the proceedings.
The applicant lodged an appeal against this decision. When examining the appeal, the Regional Court had doubts as to whether the guardian could make a declaration of acceptance or rejection of the inheritance on behalf of the absent heir.
In response to this legal issue, the Supreme Court, in its Resolution of February 6, 2025 (ref. no. III CZP 31/24), noted that: „The authority of a guardian for a person whose place of residence is unknown does not include procedural actions falling within the scope of material disposition related to the final disposition of the subject matter of the dispute. Therefore, the possibility of a guardian appointed under Article 143 of the Code of Civil Procedure performing substantive civil law acts (making statements that have effects only in the sphere of substantive law) should be rejected all the more (…)”.
Therefore, in accordance with the aforementioned resolution of the Supreme Court, a guardian appointed for a person whose place of residence is unknown does not have the power to independently make a declaration of acceptance or rejection of inheritance on their behalf.
This position is of key importance both from the perspective of the constitutional protection of the right to inheritance referred to in Article 21(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland (especially when the inheritance is encumbered with debts) and from the point of view of the protection of creditors, for whom it is necessary to determine who the heir is in order to effectively pursue their claims.