The 94-year-old man bequeathed millions of family properties to the neighborhood committee, and his children who have been missing for nearly 60 years have a dispute over the inheritance, and the court has ruled

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With the development of economy and society, many elderly people have savings in their pockets and begin to pursue the quality of life in their old age and the comfort of the spiritual world. For some elderly people who lack the care of their relatives, signing a bequest support agreement is a good choice for spending a happy old age. Recently, the Liangxi District People's Court of Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, concluded a special dispute over a bequest maintenance agreement, confirming that the bequest and support agreement signed between the elderly and the neighborhood committee was valid, and the neighborhood committee fulfilled its obligation to send the elderly to the end of the pension, and ruled that the millions of inheritance left by the elderly belonged to the neighborhood committee.

The elderly entrust their old age to the neighborhood committee

Uncle Cao, who lives in Liangxi District, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, is not good at words and comes alone in the eyes of nearby residents, and has lived alone in a small house of more than 20 square meters since he was in his 30s. 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 spend so much money 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, and 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 they live, and they understand their own situation, and it is a good choice for the neighborhood committee to provide for their own pension. After Uncle Cao told the neighborhood committee about this idea, he also received support from the neighborhood committee. Therefore, the two sides signed a "Handling Opinion" under the witness of Uncle Cao's younger brothers and sisters, 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 sick, considering that the neighborhood committee has always given Uncle Cao the treatment of "five guarantee households", and the neighborhood committee regularly pairs up to take care of it, give basic living expenses every month, free medical treatment, and give living subsidies and condolences during the New Year's Festival, etc., and now agree, The neighborhood committee shall be responsible for the living and pension of Uncle Cao according to the treatment of "five guarantee households", and the movable and immovable property of Uncle Cao shall be 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.

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.

Four children "descended from the sky" to seize the inheritance

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.

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. At this time, the children were not happy and raised questions: the "Handling Opinions" did not have keywords such as "bequest" and "maintenance" throughout the article, 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 use nearly 2 million yuan of property to return, 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.

The truth about 60 years of "disconnection" with children

In court, the four children also told the secret of not having contact with their father for many years. It turned out that Uncle Cao was sent to a certain place in Anhui when he was young, and after marrying Wu, he 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, and his wife Wu did not support him. In the next two years, the two often quarreled over this matter, and the contradictions intensified, and finally 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. After that, Wu got up early and worked greedily to earn money to pull four children, of which the hardship was one point more, and the resentment towards her ex-husband was one point more, and even several children changed their surnames to her, determined to cut off with their past lives.

5 years after the divorce, Uncle Cao's life in Wuxi was not as he imagined, coupled with the loneliness and unaccompaniment under his knees, he came to Anhui again, found his ex-wife Wu, and expressed to her the idea of taking a child away. "Can you take it with you if you want?" You don't have a job yourself, let the kids drink the northwest wind with you? Wu resolutely disagreed with this idea, and the four children also expressed their reluctance to live with their father. Uncle Cao touched a nose of ash and returned to Wuxi disheartened. In the decades that followed, they never came back and forth again.

Because the mother has a grudge against the father, does not allow the children to visit the father, plus the mother remarries, the stepfather is good to them, considering the feelings of the stepfather, so the four children have never visited and supported the father in the past 60 years.

The judgment inheritance belongs to the neighborhood committee

After the neighborhood committee sued the court, the court held after trial that the citizen could sign a bequest and support agreement with the dependant, and according to the agreement, the supporter undertook the obligation of the citizen to live, raise and die and was buried, and enjoyed 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 for the daily life of Uncle Cao who lives alone, properly arranged the residence and has special care, paid for his medical expenses, 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.

Referee analysis

Priority effect of a bequest maintenance agreement

According to the relevant laws and regulations, after the inheritance begins, it shall be handled in accordance with the legal succession; if there is a will, it shall be handled in accordance with the will or bequest; if there is a bequest maintenance agreement, it shall be handled in accordance with the agreement. It can be seen that among the methods of inheritance, the bequest maintenance agreement has the highest effect.

In this case, the "Handling Opinions" signed by the elderly and the neighborhood committee conformed to the legislative intention of bequest support from the content point of view, the four children did not raise objections to its authenticity, and the elderly and their brothers and sisters signed and confirmed, which can be determined to be essentially a true, legal and valid bequest and maintenance agreement, so the order of application takes precedence over the legal inheritance of the four children.

Provide more options for the elderly to enjoy their old age in peace

Bequest support is a civil legal relationship of equality, remuneration and mutual rights and obligations, which aims to encourage people to take care of the elderly who need support with certain benefits, and is an act of social mutual assistance that combines property behavior and moral behavior. The main purpose of the agreement signed by the dependant is not to obtain property benefits, but to support and help the dependent, that is, to ensure the life and death of the dependent, which includes not only material supply, but also life care, spiritual comfort, but also requires the dependent to perform the maintenance obligation from beginning to end and for a long time.

The Inheritance Law stipulates that citizens may enter into bequest maintenance agreements with collective ownership organizations. According to the agreement, the collective ownership organization assumes the obligation of the citizen to live, raise and bury, and enjoys the right to receive bequests. On the basis of the Inheritance Law, the Civil Code further expands the scope of bequest dependants, stipulating that natural persons may sign bequest maintenance agreements with organizations or individuals other than heirs. The provisions guarantee the social support of the elderly from the legal level, which not only alleviates the pressure of social pension, makes up for the lack of social relief, but also meets the diversified needs of the elderly in the form of old-age care, and improves the quality of life in old age.

Life support and spiritual comfort cannot be measured in money

In this case, after the death of the old man, his children questioned whether the neighborhood committee had indeed fulfilled its maintenance obligations, believing that it was only to give the treatment of "five guarantee households" and visit and give gifts every New Year's Festival, which was not "in place", and it was not equal to the millions of inheritance left by the old man, which seriously violated the principle of fairness and reasonableness. However, bequest maintenance agreements are different from commercial contracts, reflecting mutual help in life, although paid and double-service, but it is difficult to measure whether they are equivalent. It can be seen from the agreement that before the establishment of the relationship between the neighborhood committee and the elderly bequest and support, the neighborhood committee cared for the elderly. They may just see that the old man is old and unattended, and give the old man some help, but the old man has these little bits of warmth in his heart, and when he is weak in his 70s and needs to be cared for, the first thing he thinks of is not his children, brothers and sisters, but the neighborhood committee. In the following 16 years, the elderly have never raised any dissatisfaction with the care and support of the neighborhood committee and want to revoke the agreement, and finally the elderly died at the age of 94, all of which can show that the neighborhood committee has carried out long-term care for the elderly from beginning to end, this kind of support and spiritual companionship in life cannot be measured by money, and the children who have not seen each other for decades should not rely on only some speculation to negate the efforts of the neighborhood committee for many years.

Source: People's Court Daily

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