The elderly who lived alone were cared for by the neighborhood committee for 16 years, and after their deaths, the four children who had not seen each other for 60 years had to inherit the inheritance

After the old man died

Suddenly, 4 children appeared to inherit the inheritance

Recently

The Liangxi District People's Court of Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, concluded the trial

Such a special bequest maintenance agreement dispute

Legacy left by the elderly

In the end...

Uncle looked for a neighborhood committee to provide for himself

Uncle Cao, who lives in Liangxi District, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, has lived alone in a 20-square-meter hut since he was in his 30s, and has never heard that he has a wife and children.

In 2003, the then 78-year-old uncle Cao's hut was demolished, but how to resettle Uncle Cao made the village difficult. It turned out that the resettlement houses built at that time were relatively large, and Uncle Cao could not afford to replace the big houses.

Considering Uncle Cao's special situation, the neighborhood committee paid the difference for him and placed a house of more than 100 square meters for Uncle Cao.

Uncle Cao, who got the big house, had new troubles, thinking that he was old and sick from time to time, he began to worry about his pension problems.

At this time, he thought of the neighborhood committee that usually gave him a lot of care: the neighborhood committee is relatively close to the place where he lives, and he knows his own situation, can he let the neighborhood committee provide for his own pension? After Uncle Cao told the neighborhood committee about this idea, he received support from the neighborhood committee.

The two sides signed a "Handling Opinion" under the witness of Uncle Cao's younger siblings, stating that due to historical and other reasons, Uncle Cao has always been single, although there are brothers and sisters, but due to busy work, long distance, inconvenient care, at present, Uncle Cao is old, frail and sickly, considering that the neighborhood committee has always given Uncle Cao the treatment of "five guarantee households", and the neighborhood committee regularly allocates members to take care of the basic living expenses, free medical treatment, and gives living subsidies and condolences to the New Year's Festival, etc. The "five guarantee households" treatment is given to Uncle Cao to be responsible for living and providing for the elderly until the end of his life, and Uncle Cao's movable and immovable property is disposed of by the neighborhood committee after his death.

The neighborhood committee, Uncle Cao, and Uncle Cao's younger siblings all signed the Handling Opinions.

The neighborhood committee took care of it for 16 years

Collect the relics and find 300,000 savings

For the next 16 years, Uncle Cao's daily life was taken care of by the staff of the neighborhood committee. After the demolition of the old house, the neighborhood committee provided a transitional room for Uncle Cao, and the neighborhood committee paid for his medical expenses several times when he was sick and hospitalized, and sent condolence money every New Year's Festival.

In 2019, Jiang Mou, a staff member who has been taking care of Uncle Cao, found that Uncle Cao's physical condition was not as good as before, so he consulted with Uncle Cao and went to a nursing home to spend his old age.

After obtaining uncle Cao's consent, the neighborhood committee sent Uncle Cao to a nearby nursing home, paid him maintenance fees, occupancy fees, and purchased daily necessities.

Later, the 94-year-old Uncle Cao died in a nursing home, and the neighborhood committee spent nearly 60,000 yuan to handle the funeral for him.

After Uncle Cao's death, the neighborhood committee collected his belongings for him, so he opened the door of Uncle Cao's former residence in the presence of the police station. I thought that Uncle Cao usually had no income and no savings, but he did not expect to find more than 110,000 yuan in cash and more than 180,000 yuan in the house.

"Skyfall" 4 children

Ask for cash and property for the elderly

Not long after, four people who claimed to be Uncle Cao's children came to the neighborhood committee and said that they would inherit the cash and property left by the old man.

The old man who thought he was a "widow" suddenly appeared with four children, and the neighborhood committee was shocked, and the first thing that came to mind was to confirm their parent-child relationship with Uncle Cao. DNA identification can not deceive people, these four strangers who "fell from the sky" really have a parent-child relationship with Uncle Cao.

At this time, the neighborhood committee came up with the "Handling Opinions" and informed Uncle Cao of his wishes before his death, and Uncle Cao's inheritance should belong to the neighborhood committee according to law.

The children raised questions: the "Handling Opinions" did not contain keywords such as "bequest" and "maintenance", which could not be regarded as a bequest and maintenance agreement, and the neighborhood committee only used the "five guarantee households" treatment to let Uncle Cao return with nearly 2 million yuan of property, which violated the principle of fairness and reasonableness, should be invalid, and all the inheritance should be inherited by the four children according to law.

In order to properly handle the dispute, the neighborhood committee sued the court, demanding confirmation that this "Handling Opinion" was valid and that Uncle Cao's estate belonged to the neighborhood committee.

In court, the four children confessed their secret feelings of not interacting with their father for many years.

It turned out that Uncle Cao went to a certain place in Anhui when he was young, married Wu and gave birth to four children. Shortly after the birth of his youngest daughter, he had the idea of returning to Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, to work as a farmer, but his wife Wu did not support it.

In the next two years, the two often quarreled over this matter, and eventually divorced. Because Uncle Cao did not have a job at that time, the two agreed that the four children were raised by Wu, and even the 15 yuan fare for Uncle Cao's return to Wuxi was given by Wu.

Wu worked alone to earn money to pull four children, and let several children change their surnames, determined to cut off their past lives.

After 5 years of divorce, Uncle Cao's life in Wuxi was not satisfactory, and he came to Anhui again to find his ex-wife Wu mou and expressed his desire to take a child with him. Wu resolutely disagreed, and the four children also expressed their reluctance to live with their father. Uncle Cao returned to Wuxi disheartened, and for decades afterwards, they never came back to each other again.

After trial, the court held that:

Citizens may sign a bequest and maintenance agreement with their dependants, and in accordance with the agreement, the dependants shall undertake the obligation of the citizen's life, maintenance, death and burial, and enjoy the right to receive the bequest. Citizens may enter into bequest maintenance agreements with collective ownership organizations.

Although the "Handling Opinions" are not marked as "Bequest Maintenance Agreement" from the title and form, according to its substantive content, the rights and obligations of both parties are clearly agreed upon, and it should be determined that it is essentially a bequest maintenance agreement, and the subject of the agreement is qualified, the intention is true, and the content is legal, and it should be valid.

In the 16 years since the signing of the "Handling Opinions", the neighborhood committee has provided support to The Daily Life of Uncle Cao who lives alone, properly arranged the residence and has special caretakers, paid for his medical expenses in advance, sent him to a nursing home and paid for the expenses when he was old, and undertook the funeral expenses after his death. This kind of care in life and care for the spiritual world cannot be measured by money.

The law cannot restore the specific circumstances of the neighborhood committee's care for Uncle Cao, but the fact that Uncle Cao lived to the age of 94 before he died also explains everything.

Since the validity of the bequest maintenance agreement is superior to the testamentary inheritance and statutory succession, the neighborhood committee has the right to enjoy the right to receive the bequest in accordance with the agreement.

As a result, the court ruled that the "Handling Opinions" were valid, and the house, cash, equity, and deposit principal and interest left by Uncle Cao belonged to the neighborhood committee.

Source: Jiangsu News