Alina Esmanskaya told Pravo.ru about the judicial practice of not recognising heirs as unworthy

Alina Esmanskaya — associate

In accordance with the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, an heir may be declared unworthy and deprived of the right to inherit as by law as by will. In the majority of cases, however, this requires the commission of actions against the testator, the wrongfulness of which must be confirmed by a court decision. At the same time, the vast majority of inheritance disputes arise from family conflicts, so courts do not find grounds to recognise a citizen as unworthy heir.

For example, as Alina Esmanskaya, Associate of Private Wealth practice at Maxima Legal, explained to Pravo.ru legal media, courts usually do not acknowledge aspects of moral nature as legally significant.

Furthermore, the expert stressed that it is not uncommon that upon the death of a testator hes or her heirs immediately withdraw money from the testator’s bank cards, thus reducing the amount of inherited property and violating the rights of other heirs. But in such situations courts usually do not recognize the heirs as unworthy and require them to return the money to other relatives of the deceased in proportion to their inherited shares as unjust enrichment.

To read the full text of the article (in Russian), please see Pravo.ru website >>>