Inherit the glory of three springs, and enlighten the joy of a lifetime. In March, a popular drama "Chenghuan Ji", which takes the heroine Mai Chenghuan as the main line and integrates family protection and self-growth, landed on CCTV. The plot is warm but not procrastinating, conflicting but not outrageous, and more realistically reflects some common contradictions in contemporary family life. Among them, the way in which grandmother Chen Shuzhen got along with her grandson Yao Zhiming and step-granddaughter Mak Chenghuan before her death, as well as the inheritance arrangement of the property under her name after her death, more typically reflect some problems in inheritance. Today, we will take advantage of the popularity of the drama to talk about inheritance.
Synopsis
▶ Grandson Yao Zhiming: Grandma Chen Shuzhen and grandfather divorced in the early years, Zhiming went to business abroad with his grandfather and father since he was a child, and he has been separated from his grandmother for many years.
▶ step-granddaughter Mai Chenghuan: After her grandmother divorced for many years, she and Chenghuan's grandfather entered into marriage again because of twilight love and became Chenghuan's stepgrandmother. Although there is no blood relationship between the two, grandma watched Chenghuan grow up since she was a child and reached out to Chenghuan when she was seriously ill. Cheng Huan has also been close to his grandmother since he was a child, especially after Cheng Huan's grandfather died and his grandmother lived alone in a nursing home, Cheng Huan would come to accompany his grandmother every week.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that Zhiming knows his grandmother's identity as an invisible rich man well, and after returning to China, he also approached his grandmother in business, wanting to get the Xing'anli Hotel in his grandmother's name, but Cheng Huan has no idea about his grandmother's assets, and his grandmother's company is completely out of gratitude and love for the elderly.
In the face of two young people, the gentle and firm grandmother threaded the needle between her grandson Zhiming and her stepgranddaughter Chenghuan before her death, guided and healed them, and taught them the principles of being a man and doing things;
Question 1: Do the grandson Zhiming and the step-granddaughter Chenghuan have different status in this will because of blood relationship?
1
Grandma's will was a bequest
Paragraph 2 of Article 1133 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the "Civil Code") stipulates that a natural person may make a will to designate personal property to be inherited by one or more of the legal heirs. At the same time, paragraph 3 stipulates that a natural person may make a will to donate his personal property to an organization or individual other than the state, a collective or a legal heir. In practice, we usually refer to the testamentary method specified in paragraph 2 above as a will, and the testamentary method specified in paragraph 3 as a bequest. Although testamentary succession and bequest are both ways to dispose of related property by will, they are actually two different ways of inheritance. The main difference between the two is the identity of the beneficiary. The beneficiary of testamentary succession is the legal heir of the decedent, regardless of the succession, while the beneficiary of the bequest is an organization, individual, or state or collective other than the legal heir.
2
Zhiming and Chenghuan are legatees
According to Article 1127 of the Civil Code, the scope of legal heirs is as follows: (1) the first order: spouse, children, parents, and (2) the second order: siblings, grandparents, maternal grandparents. After the commencement of succession, the heirs in the first order shall inherit the succession, and the heirs in the second order shall not inherit, and if there is no heir in the first order, the heirs in the second order shall inherit. It can be seen that the grandson Zhiming and the step-granddaughter Chenghuan are not within the scope of the grandmother's legal heirs, so what the grandmother Chen Shuzhen left to the two is actually a bequest, and both of them are legatees.
3
What is the impact of the distinction between a will and a bequest on the exercise of beneficiary rights?
With regard to bequests, the second paragraph of Article 1124 of the Civil Code stipulates that the legatee shall, within 60 days after becoming aware of the bequest, make an indication of acceptance or renunciation of the bequest; In other words, the legatee must make a clear expression of intent to accept the bequest within the statutory period in order to enjoy the rights related to the bequest. Therefore, according to the plot setting, both his grandson Zhiming and step-granddaughter Chenghuan need to make an expression of acceptance of the bequest within 60 days after the lawyer reads out the will, otherwise it will be regarded as a waiver of the bequest, and the estate involved in the bequest will return to the scope of legal inheritance to be distributed.
Wills are different. According to the first paragraph of Article 1124 of the Civil Code, if the heir renounces the inheritance after the commencement of the inheritance, he shall make an expression of renunciation of the inheritance in writing before the disposition of the inheritance; In other words, the heirs of a will do not need to make a specific expression of intent to accept in order to automatically acquire the relevant rights of the will.
Question 2: If the grandmother does not make a bequest, or if neither Chi Ming nor Cheng Huan has made a clear expression of acceptance within the statutory period, how will the huge amount of property be inherited?
First of all, Article 1123 of the Civil Code stipulates that after the commencement of inheritance, it shall be handled in accordance with the statutory inheritance, in the case of a will, it shall be handled in accordance with the testamentary inheritance or bequest, and in the case of a bequest and maintenance agreement, it shall be handled in accordance with the agreement. Article 1154 stipulates that under any of the following circumstances, the relevant part of the estate shall be handled in accordance with the statutory inheritance: (1) the testamentary heir renounces the inheritance or the legatee renounces the bequest; (2) the testamentary heir loses the right of inheritance or the legatee loses the right to receive the bequest; (3) the testamentary heir or legatee dies or is terminated before the testator; (4) the estate involved in the invalid part of the will; (5) the estate that has not been disposed of by the will. Therefore, if the grandmother does not make a bequest, or neither Zhiming nor Chenghuan makes an express expression of intent to accept it within the statutory period, the property in the play will be treated as a legal inheritance.
Secondly, according to the provisions of Article 1127 of the Civil Code on sequential inheritance, it is necessary to determine the legal heirs of grandma Chen Shuzhen.
In the play, the grandmother is old and her spouse Chenghuan's grandfather dies, so the grandmother's first heir should be her children. According to the law, children include legitimate children, children born out of wedlock, adopted children and dependent stepchildren. Then according to the setting of the plot, the first heir locked in the literal meaning of "child" should be Zhiming's father, the biological son of his grandmother, and Cheng Huan's father, his stepson of his grandmother Chen Shuzhen. Next, let's take a look at whether both of these people are qualified as legal heirs.
Let's talk about Cheng Huan's father first. Stepchildren are children born to a wife and a former husband or a husband and a former wife. However, from the perspective of the law, stepchildren do not automatically enjoy the status of "children" in legal inheritance, but need to be stepchildren who have a "dependency relationship". Generally speaking, the determination of the maintenance relationship between a stepchild and a stepparent must be considered from the following two aspects: (1) the stepparent has fulfilled the obligation to support the minor stepchild, and (2) the stepchild has fulfilled the obligation to support the stepparent.
It is generally believed that if a stepchild has grown up and separated from another person when his biological father or mother remarries, and the stepchild has not fulfilled the obligation of support to the stepfather or stepmother, it cannot be regarded as a relationship of support between the stepchild and the stepparent, and the stepchild cannot inherit the stepparent's estate. According to the plot, Chenghuan's grandfather and grandmother are in twilight love, Chenghuan's father separated when they got married, and after Chenghuan's grandfather died and his grandmother was admitted to a nursing home, he did not provide financial support or living assistance, which did not meet the standards for forming a stepchild in a support relationship, so he could not inherit his grandmother's estate as a legal heir.
Let's talk about Zhiming's father. According to the explanation of the plot, Zhiming's father left his grandmother and went abroad in his early years, and later did not appear until his grandmother died. In terms of identity, Zhiming's father, as the legitimate son of his grandmother, certainly enjoys the legal right to inherit his grandmother's estate. However, it seems a little unfair that he was able to obtain the entire inheritance after his grandmother's death without fulfilling his maintenance obligations during his grandmother's lifetime, right? Don't worry, look down.
Finally, the statutory inheritance system has the characteristics of identity, and generally distributes the inheritance of the heir to those who have a blood relationship or marriage relationship with the decedent. However, if inheritance is limited to persons who are related by blood or marriage, an unfair situation may sometimes arise, especially if the person with whom the decedent has formed a dependency relationship is not an heir, and even if he or she has a very close financial, living and emotional relationship with the decedent, he or she will not be able to inherit any inheritance without a bequest. In order to avoid the above-mentioned unfairness, according to Article 1131 of the Civil Code, a person other than the heir who supports the deceased more may be given an appropriate inheritance. This kind of support is not out of legal obligation, but out of morality, and consciously and voluntarily provides financial assistance and living assistance. This provision fully reflects the law's encouragement and affirmation of the traditional virtues of supporting the elderly and helping the disabled and the needy. Moreover, according to judicial practice, the amount of inheritance to be distributed as appropriate may even be more than the heir's share of the inheritance, depending on the specific circumstances.
It can be seen that Cheng Huan, who has been taking care of his grandmother in the play, still has rights in legal inheritance. Although the grandmother pays for her own expenses, support includes not only financial support, but also life care and spiritual comfort. The pure and beautiful family relationship between Chenghuan and grandma beyond blood relationship has nothing to do with money, only sincerity, which is exactly what grandma cherishes and needs the most. And such maintenance is also affirmed and protected by the law.
Whether it is testamentary succession or legal inheritance, inheritance is just one way to pass on property. In addition to property, what is more valuable is family affection. May every family stage the "Chenghuan" record, and every old man will have a harmonious old age!
The picture comes from the Internet
Contributed by: Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court
Editor: He Wanshan Guo Jin
Review: Wang Fang