Defects in the content of a will cannot be directly found to be invalid

【Brief Introduction of the Case】

Plaintiff Wang X A and Xu X are husband and wife, and have no children after marriage; Xu X and his ex-wife have four children Xu Jia, Xu Yi, Xu C, and Xu Ding; and plaintiff Wang X B is Wang X A's niece. In 1984, Xu's work unit assigned 6 houses no. × in a village in Hanyang District, Wuhan City to Xu X and Wang X A to live (in 1999, Xu X and Wang X A bought out the disputed houses in accordance with the housing reform policy and registered them under Xu X's name) On February ×, 2002, Xu wrote a "will" stating: "After retiring in 1985, I was placed in no. 7 × buildings in a village in Hanyang District, Wuhan City (75.6 square meters in three rooms and one hall) ... The heir to the house after the two of us a hundred years ago is Xu Bing (Xu Mou's son). Father Xu a handwriting. On June 14, 2006, Xu died of illness. The two plaintiffs believed that the disputed house was the joint property of Wang X A and Xu X, and the plaintiff Wang X B had lived with Wang X and Xu X since 2001, and had fulfilled the maintenance obligation to Xu during the period, so the two plaintiffs sued the court to request the division of the ownership of the disputed house.

【Investigation and Handling】

1. Conducting an investigation into whether Wang X B fulfilled his maintenance obligation to Xu X, the plaintiff applied for witness Wang X to testify in court during the trial, but Wang X's statement only saw that Wang X B lived with Wang X A and Xu X, and it was not clear how Wang X B took care of Xu X and whether he fulfilled his maintenance obligation. Wang Mouyi had no other evidence to prove that he had fulfilled his maintenance obligations, and did not recognize the content of his claim of taking care of and supporting Xu X since 2001.

2. For the will written by Xu X, the two plaintiffs believe that the will is forged, the houses specified are seven, while the actual disputed houses are 6, and the handwriting of the will is inconsistent with Xu X's handwriting. The plaintiff did not apply for handwriting appraisal, the court went to Xu's pre-life work unit to investigate according to its authority, and after comparing Xu's file, the signature of the materials in his file was the same as the handwriting of the will, and after the statement of the former party branch secretary, community director, neighbors and others of the unit, Xu said many times before his death that the disputed house was inherited by Xu Bing, and the number of the number registered in the address of the disputed house was changed many times, combined with the objective facts of the house where Xu lived before his death and the specific content of the will, it should be identified as a clerical error, so the court determined the authenticity of the will.

【Legal Analysis】

1. Should the disputed house be inherited according to the law or will?

Statutory inheritance and testamentary inheritance are the more common inheritance methods in China, and the two methods are very different. Legal inheritance refers to a method of inheritance in which the law directly stipulates the scope of the heirs, the order of inheritance, and the principle of inheritance distribution in the absence of a will on the disposition of the heirs; In this case, Xu X's will is a self-written will, which is written and signed by Xu X himself, and the year, month and day are indicated. Although the number of houses is written incorrectly, the content of the will after investigation is the true intention of Xu X, which should not affect the validity of the will, so the disputed house should be inherited according to the will.

2. How is the scope of inheritance determined?

According to Article 3 of the Inheritance Law of the People's Republic of China, inheritance refers to the personal legal property left behind by a citizen at the time of death. The disputed house registered in Xu's name belongs to the joint property of Xu and plaintiff Wang X, of which one-half of the shares belong to the estate of the heir Xu X, and the other half of the shares belong to the personal property of plaintiff Wang X. Therefore, the content of the disposition of the personal estate by Xu X in the will is valid, and the content of the disposal of one-half of the shares owned by Wang X A is invalid. The court ruled that Duan Bing would inherit one-half of the share of the disputed house in accordance with his will.

【Typical significance】

In real life, many elderly people determine the inheritance of the estate by writing a will before they die, but many people are too casual in the content and format of the writing, and carelessness will lead to invalidity of the will. This case mainly made a detailed understanding of Xu's living conditions and true thoughts before his death through multiple investigations and visits, and confirmed that the will was his true expression of intent, so as to determine that the will was partially valid for the disposal of his personal estate. It is recommended that after the elderly make a will, they should go to the national notary office for notarization, which will review the authenticity and legality of the will and issue a notarial certificate to ensure the legal validity of their will.

(Wuhan Hanyang District People's Court)