Article 1119
This part regulates civil relations arising from inheritance.
I. Purpose of this Article
This article is about the scope of adjustment of the inheritance part of the Civil Code.
II. Evolution of the Provisions
The original Inheritance Law was promulgated on April 10, 1985 and came into force on October 1 of the same year. On September 11 of the same year, the Supreme People's Court promulgated the original Opinions on the Inheritance Law. The "Inheritance Law" has not been revised for 35 years, and this compilation into the "Civil Code" is a major development since the legislation of the Inheritance Law, and the provisions have been expanded from the original 37 articles to 45 articles. The contents of the ownerless estate and other aspects have been improved, more respecting the will of the decedent, more fully protecting the private property ownership of natural persons, responding to the new requirements of the development of the times and judicial practice, and providing more comprehensive and effective legal protection for the inheritance rights of relevant civil subjects.
The original Inheritance Law did not clearly stipulate the objects of adjustment, but in the process of compiling the inheritance section of the Civil Code, provisions on the objects of adjustment were added, which is of guiding significance for improving the legal system of inheritance and accurately grasping the basic connotation of the legal relationship of inheritance.
3. Interpretation of Provisions
This article is about the scope of adjustment of "inheritance" in Part VI of the Civil Code.
Inheritance refers to the inheritance of the property rights and obligations of the deceased by the heirs during his lifetime, also known as property inheritance, that is, when a natural person dies, the personal legal property left behind by him or her is a civil legal relationship designated by the deceased within the statutory scope or inherited by the legal relatives during his lifetime. In the legal relationship of inheritance, the deceased who transferred the property enjoyed during his lifetime to another person due to his death is the decedent, the personal legal property left by the decedent at the time of death is the inheritance, and the person who inherits the decedent's estate in accordance with the law is the heir.
The legal characteristics of inheritance are: (1) inheritance occurs due to the death of a natural person who is the decedent, (2) the heir in the inheritance has a specific kinship relationship with the decedent, (3) inheritance is the legal relationship of dealing with the estate of the deceased, and (4) inheritance is the legal system in which the heir inherits the property rights and obligations of the decedent in general.
Based on the way in which the heirs inherit the property, inheritance can be divided into testamentary succession and statutory succession. This is the basic classification of inheritance.
Title VI of the Civil Code, "Inheritance", regulates this kind of civil legal relationship arising from inheritance.
4. Cases
Chen Yi v. Huang Moumou, an inheritance dispute case
Facts: Chen Yi is the only daughter of Chen Jia and his ex-wife Su XX. Chen Jia and Su Moumou divorced by agreement and married Huang Moumou, and after marriage, they lived together in the public housing assigned to Chen Jia by the unit, and the two had no children. The property rights of the disputed house belonged to the No. 3 Heavy Cotton Factory. After Chen Jia died of illness, Chongmian No. 3 Factory changed the tenant of the disputed public housing to Huang Moumou, and Huang Moumou has been living alone in the disputed house and bearing the relevant rental expenses. Subsequently, the No. 3 Heavy Cotton Factory went bankrupt and liquidated, and the public housing of the factory, including the disputed house, was relocated and demolished in accordance with the municipal plan. Huang Moumou obtained the demolition and resettlement house, handled the property rights registration and renovated the house. Chen Yi applied to the court to confirm his right to inherit the property in respect of the compensation for the demolition of the disputed house. After trial, the court held that the disputed house belonged to Huang Moumou, and Huang Moumou paid Chen Yi an appropriate discount for the house.
5. Analysis
After Huang and Chen Jia remarried, they lived together in public housing with Chen Jia. After Chen Jia's death, Huang Moumou obtained the right to lease the disputed house as a co-occupant, and later obtained the ownership of the demolition and resettlement house when the disputed house was demolished. The right to lease public housing is a right in the nature of property and can be inherited. This case is a civil legal relationship dispute arising from inheritance, and naturally falls within the scope of the adjustment of inheritance legal norms. In the case, after Chen Jia's death, the lease right of the public housing should be divided by inheritance, and in the case that Chen B did not expressly renounce the inheritance, his inheritance interests were still condensed in the lease right of the public housing, although the public housing was later demolished and the property rights were exchanged, Chen B did not lose the inheritance right of the lease right and the benefits of its transformation, so Chen Yi could still claim to divide the demolition and resettlement house. Since the public welfare guarantee of the public housing lease right is the first, Huang Moumou and the original tenant Chen Jia have been living together in the public housing, so Huang Moumou should be given more points when dividing.