Most of us have come across inheritance in one way or another. People live, in the process they make good, die, everything they have acquired goes to their heirs. Do heirs always deserve it? Today we will talk about those who are not worthy to receive an inheritance due to their behavior.

Unworthy heir: who is he?

Inheritance - the transfer of the property of the deceased to other persons in the order of universal legal succession.

Universal succession means the transfer of inherited property unchanged as a whole and at the same moment. There are exceptions to this rule. In general, Russian legislation contains many exceptions to the rules and reservations. On the one hand, this is good, on the other hand, this approach carries a lot of negative aspects.

The main participants in hereditary legal relations are the testator, heir, etc.

The notary performs the functions of a kind of intermediary between the testator and the heir, realizes on behalf of the state certain control functions in the transfer of rights to inherited property. Therefore, we will not talk about him.

Testator - a person whose property, after his death, passes to other persons in the manner of universal succession.

Heir - the one to whom the rights to the property of the testator are transferred, i.e. the same universal legal successor.

The transfer of ownership of property from the testator to the heir occurs on the day of the death of the testator, i.e. on the day of opening the inheritance. This rule also applies to cases where real estate, the transfer of the right to which is subject to state registration.

The literal understanding of the word "worthiness" means "deservedness."

With regard to the subject of inheritance, consideration of the issue of dignity or unworthiness of the heir is to get an answer to the question: does the heir deserve to receive the inheritance or not.

Unworthy heir - a person who does not have the right to inherit or who has been removed from inheritance due to circumstances established by law.

As can be seen from the definition, there is a distinction between the absence of the right to inherit and removal from inheritance. The difference between these two legal implications we will understand after we analyze the three grounds for declaring an heir unworthy.

Looking ahead, let us say that the onset of circumstances in connection with which the heir may be deemed unworthy must be caused by subjective reasons, i.e. the behavior of the heir himself, who by his actions (inaction) makes himself unworthy. Such actions (inaction) must necessarily be guilty and deliberate.

The first ground for recognition as an unworthy heir

In addition, explanations of the key and difficult points in the application are contained in the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated May 29, 2012 No. 9 "On jurisprudence in cases of inheritance ".

The indicated bases can be conditionally divided into three groups. The distinction criterion is a form of behavior. These can be actions (inaction) that indicate unworthiness to inherit. Let's talk about the first group.

Citizens who, by their unlawful actions, contributed or tried to contribute, do not inherit in any form (neither by law nor by will):

1. Calling themselves or others to inherit;
2. Increase of the inheritance share due to them or to other persons.

Illegal actions must be directed against:

1. The testator;
2. The last will of the testator, expressed in the will;
3. Some of the other heirs.

Please note that in this group of grounds, unworthy actions can be committed both in relation to the testator or his last will in the will, and in relation to other heirs. In the second and third groups, we will only talk about the testator.

Illegal actions must be deliberate, regardless of the motives and goals of their commission (revenge, jealousy, hooligan motives, etc.).

In this case, the unworthy heir loses the right of inheritance, regardless of whether or not such actions entailed the onset of the corresponding negative consequences.

An example of the commission of unlawful acts against the implementation by the testator of the last will, expressed in a will, may be forging a will, its destruction or theft, forcing the testator to draw up or revoke a will, forcing heirs to renounce inheritance. As you can see, all actions are performed intentionally.

Good to know

The heir is unworthy on the present ground only if the unlawful guilty actions are confirmed in judicial procedure.

Confirmation in court means the existence of a final court verdict in a criminal case or a court decision on civil case (for example, on the invalidation of a will made under the influence of violence or threat).

This is enough to qualify the heir as unworthy.

A separate court decision on recognition as an unworthy heir is not required.

Despite the fact that a citizen loses the right of inheritance from the date of entry into force of a verdict or a court decision, which established the circumstances that would qualify him as unworthy to receive an inheritance, the last point in securing this status is put by a notary.

This is done by excluding this citizen from the list of heirs. The basis is a certified copy of a court ruling, which has entered into legal force, which established the deliberate unlawful actions of the excluded heir, provided to the notary.

An important rule!

For an unworthy heir, the performance of the above actions does not constitute a final deprivation of the right to inherit.

For example, the following situation may occur. There is a verdict or a court decision, according to which a citizen has no right to inherit due to his unworthiness, i.e. committed unworthy of inheritance actions. After that, the testator and the given person tried on, and the testator executed a will against the unworthy heir. In this case, the forgiven heir will not be considered unworthy and has the right to inherit the property by will.

Second base

Parents who were in accordance with the procedure established by law cannot inherit by law after children. Accordingly, by the day of the opening of the inheritance, the deprivation of rights should be relevant - the parents should not be reinstated in them.

This rule follows from the provision enshrined in the Family Code of the Russian Federation, according to which the consequence of deprivation of parental rights is the loss by parents of all rights based on the fact of kinship with a child in respect of whom they have been deprived of parental rights. These rights include inheritance by law after the death of children.

Also, as in the first ground, the notary excludes the unworthy parent from the list of heirs when he is provided with a court decision that has entered into legal force confirming the fact of deprivation of parental rights. A separate court decision on recognition as an unworthy heir is not required.

Please note that both the first and second grounds provide for the absence of the right to inherit due to the presence of certain circumstances, confirmed by a court order. Exclusion from inheritance will be discussed further, when considering the third ground.

Third base

Removal from inheritance by law is carried out only by a court by making an appropriate decision at the request of interested parties.

Again, the reason is the unworthy behavior of a person who claims to receive inheritance, but is not worthy of it. In this case, such a person should have maliciously evaded from fulfilling the obligations of his maintenance that lay on him during the life of the testator.

Such obligations must be mandatory by law and represent the alimony obligations of family members established by the Family Code. In this case, there must be a court decision on the recovery of alimony from the person removed from inheritance in favor of the testator. An exception is the situation when a parent is recognized as unworthy if he has maliciously failed to fulfill his alimony obligations in relation to a minor child. In this case, a court decision on the recovery of alimony is not required.

The issue of disqualification from inheritance is considered in the procedure for action.

A claim may be brought by any person who has an interest in calling himself to inherit or in increasing his share in the inheritance. Also, the claimant may be the consignee or the person, rights and legitimate interests which may be affected by the transfer of rights to inheritance.

No matter how cynical it may sound, other heirs are often interested persons, who are led not by the desire to restore justice, but by the usual mercantile intention to increase their share. But this is not always the case.

Now let's talk about malice - evasion must be malicious.

When assessing the nature of the evasion and its possible qualification as malicious, it is necessary to take into account the duration and reasons for non-payment of maintenance. There are no uniform standards and an individual approach is needed in each case.

The court will remove from inheritance if there is evidence of malicious evasion. This circumstance can be confirmed by a court verdict on conviction for malicious evasion from the payment of alimony, a court decision on responsibility for their late payment, a certificate from bailiffs-executors, and other evidence.

Also, the court may recognize as malicious evasion not only the fact of failure to provide content without good reason, but also a situation when a person obliged to pay alimony to the testator concealed the actual amount of his income for the purpose of evasion, changed his place of work or residence for the same reason, performed other actions of a similar nature.

The consequences of unworthiness of inheritance

There is no problem if the unworthy heir did not manage to receive the inheritance. What happens in a situation when the property was received by him? Everything is simple and fair here.

An unworthy heir, by virtue of his unworthiness, is obliged to return everything that he received from the estate.

This should happen regardless of whether there was a court disqualification from inheritance (basis 3), or the unworthy one was excluded from the list of heirs by a notary (grounds 1 and 2).

Otherwise, unjust enrichment will take place, which is unacceptable in accordance with Russian law.

An important rule!

Without exception, all provisions on unworthiness do not apply to heirs who are entitled to a compulsory share of the inheritance.

To whom does the property belong to the unworthy heir?

In this case, there will be an increase in hereditary shares. In order not to overload the presentation of the topic concerned, I will not go into details of how the increment occurs. The general meaning is that an unworthy heir will be considered to have fallen away and his share will be distributed among other heirs who have accepted the inheritance.

A little about the timing

In conclusion, it was impossible not to touch upon such important pointlike timing.

Speaking of them, it is of prime importance. Having correctly determined the start day of the term and knowing its duration, it will not be difficult to calculate the last day for the performance of a legally significant action, i.e. the last day of the term.

The Civil Code sets the deadline for accepting inheritance - six months.

According to the general rule, this period is calculated from the date of opening the inheritance, i.e. from the date of the death of the testator or the entry into force of the court decision declaring him dead.

Inheritance of property that was due to an heir who was removed from inheritance (basis 3) is one of the exceptions to this rule.

In this case, the course of the six-month period for the acceptance of the released inheritance property due to the departed heir begins on the next day after the suspension, i.e. on the day after the entry into force of the court decision on the suspension.

The above-mentioned Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 05/29/2012 No. 9 contains an example of the calculation of such a period:

December 06, 2012 - the date of entry into force of the court decision on the removal of the unworthy heir from inheritance

from December 07, 2012 to June 06, 2013 - a six-month period for the acceptance of the inheritance by the heirs, who are called to inherit due to the removal of an unworthy heir from inheritance.

Before you start delving into the legal intricacies, you need to understand the definition itself. Recognition of a citizen as an unscrupulous (or unworthy) heir means his removal from inheritance for any reason, indicating that he has no right to enter into inheritance.

The unscrupulous heir is determined by the court. That is, the decision on and dismissal from him is made only in court. The trial must be initiated by the person concerned (one of the heirs in accordance with the law or the will left by the testator).
Recognition of a citizen as an unscrupulous heir should be based on solid evidence confirming his illegal actions or intentions in relation to the testator or other recipients of the inheritance.

Basic provisions of the law

The main provisions of the law on recognizing a person as an unscrupulous heir are spelled out in the current Civil Code Russian Federation.

There you can find all the fundamental definitions that characterize the concept.
The theses contained in this article are as follows.

Explanations to the provisions of the law

As can be judged from the above theses, the possibilities according to which a person can be recognized as an unscrupulous heir are quite few, and all of them and the conditions accompanying them are clearly spelled out in the law.
First of all, it is necessary to prove that the citizen had an evil intent against the testator and committed (or was going to commit, which is even more difficult to prove) a crime that would help him to take possession of the inheritance. At the same time, the court does not consider either words or intentions, but only concrete actions.
Such acts may include: forcing the testator to draw up a will in favor of a specific person or revoke an already drawn will. Forgery, destruction or theft of a will, attempted murder, beatings, threats, psychological pressure and the like. And the court's decision on the guilt of the person, as a result of which he will be, does not depend on whether the criminal has achieved his goal or not. The very fact of illegal actions is important.
The same applies to an attempt to deprive other heirs of their share in the inheritance. If a citizen, for example, did not inform other heirs about the death of the testator, this is not a reason to declare him an unscrupulous heir. Because notifying relatives is not provided for by law. It is another matter if he made attempts to prevent the notary from finding the heirs, deliberately misleading him and hiding the presence of "competitors".

At the same time, a citizen loses the right to inheritance only when the circumstances that allow him to be eliminated from inheritance are recognized by the court's conviction (if the case was considered within the framework of criminal proceedings) or by a court decision (within the framework of civil proceedings).
Not everything is simple with the evasion of the heir's obligations to the testator. Removal of a citizen from inheritance is possible if he evaded, for example, from paying alimony, the amount, volume and mode of payment of which was legally adopted earlier. And only if the fact of evasion was established by the court in accordance with Article 115 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation. It is worth remembering that alimony obligations can be established between:

• parents and children (both in one and the other direction);
• spouses;
• grandfathers (grandmothers) and grandchildren;
• stepson (stepdaughter) and stepfather (stepmother).

Alimony between other degrees of kinship is not provided for in Russian legislation.
Parents who were previously deprived of their parental rights, but restored to their rights by the time of inheritance for their children, are not recognized as unscrupulous heirs unless there are other grounds.

Return of unjustifiably acquired property

If a citizen, subsequently recognized as an unworthy heir, managed to fully or partially enter into inheritance rights, then all the property that he possessed is recognized as acquired unjustifiably. Since a person who does not have the right to inherit, there is no legal basis for obtaining such property. A person removed from the inheritance (recognized as an unscrupulous heir) loses such a basis according to a court decision. Accordingly, all property illegally obtained by a citizen must return to the general estate and be transferred to legal heirs, in accordance with the rules prescribed in chapter 60 Civil Code Russian Federation.
As stated in paragraph 1 of Article 1104 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, all unjustifiably obtained property must be returned in kind, that is, in the form and in the volume in which it was acquired. If for some reason this condition cannot be fulfilled, then its value must be reimbursed at the time of transfer of property to a person subsequently recognized as an unscrupulous heir.
As a rule, when deciding on the amount to be refunded, they rely either on its assessed value (if there are documents confirming the fact of the assessment), or on market value... In special cases and, as a rule, at the insistence of the plaintiff, a additional expertise, which should set the cost.
In addition to the return of the property itself, the income received by the unscrupulous heir with his help is subject to mandatory compensation. Provided and the return of income is not actually received (if their presence is unprovable), but those that a person could extract from the property.

The procedure for filing a statement of claim in court

Only a person who is also a direct heir, in accordance with the law or an existing will, can initiate a claim to remove a citizen from inheritance.

To recognize a citizen as an unworthy heir, it is necessary to file a statement of claim with the district court general jurisdiction... In order to correctly and competently draw up this statement, it is most reasonable to use the services of a professional lawyer who will help to formulate claims and correctly refer to the circumstances that allow a person to be removed from inheritance. It must be remembered that these should not be reasons of moral and ethical quality, but a direct violation of the current legislation.
Since we are talking about the property rights and interests of citizens, the requirements for the removal of a person from inheritance must be necessarily supported by appropriate documents and other factual evidence confirming his guilt. Please note that testimony in this case is not considered evidence. And in order for the court's decision to be made in favor of the plaintiff, it is necessary to prove the presence of at least one of the circumstances provided for by law.
As a rule, the following documents are required to be attached to the statement of claim:

• copies of the application (according to the number of interested parties);
• a copy of the testator's death certificate (if you cannot provide it for any reason, they must be indicated in the application);
• a copy of the identity document (passport) of the plaintiff;
• a copy of the document confirming the right to inheritance;
• a copy of the document confirming the presence of hereditary property;
• receipt of payment of state duty.

Some nuances of judicial practice

It is also most reasonable to give the right to represent their interests in court to professionals. A person inexperienced in such a practice may simply be confused when faced with the nuances of the consideration of the case. Not to mention the behavior of your opponents. Cases about the division of property are so difficult because people often seek to comply with their own interests, deliberately trying to mislead others. For example, it is not uncommon for people to file a lawsuit to remove themselves from the inheritance, no matter how paradoxical it sounds. But having lost such a lawsuit, they get a court decision on the recognition of their heirs as "good faith" and calmly enter into inheritance rights.

In addition, there are a number of nuances in connection with which each case on recognizing a citizen as an unscrupulous heir is considered individually.
As a basis for the distribution of shares in the inheritance, the court considers the will drawn up by the testator (if any). If it mentions citizens who were subsequently, according to a court decision, removed from inheritance, then their share is usually distributed in accordance with the shares indicated by the testator.

If the will was not drawn up or, for some reason, lost its legal force, then the entire inheritance mass will be distributed among the relatives in accordance with the law. The procedure for the distribution of the inheritance, as well as the decision to declare a citizen an unworthy heir, remains with the court decision.

Removal from inheritance can be applied to unscrupulous heirs. If the behavior of the applicant for the inheritance is contrary to the law or damage was caused to the testator during his lifetime, then, according to Art. 1117 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, such persons are deprived of their rights. An unscrupulous heir shall be suspended from consideration of a succession case by a court or a notary if aggravating circumstances are found and proved.

Basic rules for the removal of an heir

In the event of an inheritance case, interested persons apply to a notary to accept the property of the deceased. Registration of the property of the former owner is carried out according to the established procedure and takes six months from the date of the death of the testator. Inheritance is made by will or by law when relatives are called.

Refusal to accept the application or subsequent return to the applicant is possible if a falsification of the will or illegal actions of the interested person was discovered. For example, a notary has established pressure on the owner of the property when writing a will, forgery or physical coercion.

The rest of the heirs have the right to declare in writing about the facts known to them, to confirm the available information about the machinations of an unworthy applicant.

If a person tried to take possession of the entire property or increase his share in the newly opened inheritance, then at the request of other persons the case may be referred to the court. The notary has the right to personally refuse the applicant to accept the application if there are compelling and undeniable grounds. The refusal can be appealed in court, if the court takes the side of the alleged heir, then the resolution will oblige the notary to include the citizen in the list of applicants for the inheritance.

The situation when such an heir is included in the will after confrontation with the owner of the property or causing damage to him, allows him to legally inherit the property. Citizens who have been deprived of parental rights are automatically excluded from the inherited list. This provision applies to those heirs who did not fulfill their kinship responsibilities in relation to elderly and disabled parents.

If the applicant was obliged to fulfill the alimony obligations in relation to the owner of the property, but maliciously evaded them, he will not be able to count on the inherited property. In practice, there are situations when an unscrupulous heir received a certificate of the right to inheritance before disclosing discrediting facts or statements by other applicants. A lawsuit will be required on the claim of the rest of the parties to the relationship, as a result of which a decision is made to return the property received.

A new notary deed and the redistribution of shares between bona fide heirs will be required, article 60 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. If the citizen who received the inheritance managed to sell the property and other property of the testator, then the damage is assessed and the estimated cost of the spent is recovered. The issue of returning the inherited mass must be resolved within a period not exceeding one year after the court ruling.

In the case when a relative is serving a well-deserved sentence for physical damage or murder of the testator, then such a circumstance allows him to be excluded from the applicants at the notary level. For this, the rest of the applicants or interested persons provide the notary with a court order, according to which the term is served.

Claim for cancellation of inheritance rights

The heir has the right to file a claim from among those whose application is accepted by a notary. It will be necessary to prove the impossibility of inheritance with the presentation of reasoned statements, testimony and documents. For example, the main confirmation of the illegality of inheritance by an unscrupulous relative will be official certificates of beatings, coercion to write a will and the protocols of the district inspector.

When serving statement of claim it does not matter that with a positive decision, the plaintiff acquires additional shares in the estate or becomes the sole heir. Material interest does not affect the acceptance of the claim, which can be rejected for a number of reasons. Refusal or return of a claim for an unscrupulous heir is possible if convincing evidence of the defendant's guilt is not attached to the application.

Elimination of inheritance can be challenged in fixed timeby filing an appeal with higher authorities.

If the issue is considered after the standard six months of entry into law, then the court first of all extends the notarial deed on this inheritance with its verdict and determines a new term.

In accordance with Art. 1117 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation is not inherited either by law or by will of citizens who, by their deliberate unlawful actions directed against the testator, any of his heirs or against the implementation of the testator's last will, expressed in the will, contributed or tried to promote the vocation of themselves or others persons to inherit either contributed or attempted to increase the share of the inheritance due to them or to other persons, if these circumstances are confirmed in court. However, citizens to whom the testator, after losing the right of inheritance, bequeathed property, have the right to inherit this property. Parents do not inherit by law after children in respect of whom the parents were judicially deprived of parental rights and were not restored to these rights by the day the inheritance was opened. At the request of the person concerned, the court shall remove from inheritance according to the law citizens who maliciously evaded the fulfillment of their obligations to support the testator by virtue of the law. A person who does not have the right to inherit or has been removed from inheritance (unworthy heir) is obliged to return, in accordance with the rules of Chapter 60 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, all property that he unjustifiably received from the inheritance.

These rules apply to heirs who have the right to a compulsory share in the inheritance, and also apply to testamentary renunciation (Art. 1137 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). In the event that the subject of a testamentary refusal was the performance of a certain work for an unworthy consignee or the provision of a certain service to him, the latter is obliged to reimburse the heir who performed the legacy for the cost of the work performed for the unworthy consignee or the service rendered to him. Let us analyze the civil cases in which Art. 1117 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. D. died on April 17, 2007, born on October 16, 1949. After her death, it opened in the form of an apartment located at:<…>... At the time of her death, the deceased was in a registered marriage with M. The marriage was registered on August 23, 1996. M. was issued a certificate of the right to be the heir of the first stage. J. applied to the court with a claim against M. for recognition as an unworthy heir, recognition of ownership of the residential premises located at:<…>... In support of the stated claims, she pointed out that in fact, since August 1998, the marriage relations between the spouses were terminated. The defendant did not fulfill his marital obligations, from August 1998 until his death D. did not live with her, did not run a common household, showed no interest in D., although recently she was a disabled person of the first group, was helpless and needed constant care. However, the defendant to her material assistance did not render, did not care about her.

The representative of the defendant appeared at the hearing, objected to the satisfaction of the claims. The third person, notary G., did not appear at the hearing, was duly notified, and did not inform the court about the reasons for her failure to appear. A third person, the Moscow Federal Reserve Board, did not appear at the hearing, was duly notified, and did not inform the court of the reasons for the failure to appear. The court dismissed the claim. Refusing to satisfy the claim for recognition as an unworthy heir, the court proceeded from the fact that any evidence that reliably confirms that the defendant committed any intentional actions entailing recognition of him as an unworthy heir on the grounds provided for by Art. 1117 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the plaintiff, in violation of the requirements of Art. 56 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, the court did not submit I. applied to the court with a claim against Kh., N. for recognition as unworthy heirs, recognition of his ownership of the apartment, motivating the stated requirements by the fact that the defendants evaded their obligations to maintain and care for the testators Sh. and Kh.V., were not interested in their fate, and therefore, by their inaction, they committed an unlawful influence. The plaintiff's representatives in court session the claim was upheld. The representative of the defendants appeared at the hearing, did not admit the claim. The court dismissed the claim. Refusing to satisfy the claim, the court proceeded from the fact that any evidence that reliably confirms that the defendants committed actions entailing their recognition as unworthy heirs on the grounds provided for by Art. 1117 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the plaintiff is not presented. The court concluded that in order to declare the heir unworthy, taking into account the content of Art. 1117 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, it is necessary to prove his malicious evasion from fulfilling the obligations on the maintenance of the testator lying on them by virtue of the law. Such circumstances in the case have not been established * (22). In these cases, no circumstances were established sufficient to declare the defendant unworthy. Malicious evasion of the defendants from the obligation to support the testator during his lifetime has not been established. It is necessary to bring the judgment of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on the application of Art. 1117 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

By a decision of a court of general jurisdiction, left unchanged by a higher court, in satisfying the claim of citizen A.V. Isupov to the citizen V.V. Isupov was refused the removal from the inheritance. The court found no grounds to satisfy the claim for recognizing the defendant as an unworthy heir, since V.V. Isupov in the commission of a deliberate crime against the testator or other heirs was not established by the court verdict, and his guilt in evading the payment of alimony for the maintenance of the testator was not established. The transfer of the supervisory appeal for consideration in the court session of the supervisory instance court was refused. In his complaint to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation A.V. Isupov disputes the constitutionality of paragraphs 1 and 2 of Art. 1117 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, according to which citizens do not inherit either by law or by will, who, by their deliberate unlawful actions directed against the testator, any of his heirs or against the implementation of the testator's last will, expressed in the will, contributed or tried to contribute to the vocation themselves or other persons to inherit, either contributed or tried to increase the share of the inheritance due to them or other persons, if these circumstances are confirmed in court; at the request of the person concerned, the court shall remove from inheritance according to the law citizens who maliciously evaded the fulfillment of the obligations on the maintenance of the testator that lay on them by virtue of the law. According to the applicant, the impugned provisions made it possible to restrict his inheritance rights, which is contrary to Art. 19 (part one), 35 (part four), 38 (part three), 46 (part one) and 55 (parts two and three) of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, having studied the presented A.V. Isupov's materials did not find grounds for accepting his complaint for consideration. The provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2 of Art. 1117 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation on unworthy heirs are aimed at protecting the rights of citizens during inheritance by law and as such serve to implement the requirements of Art. 17 (part three), 35, 46 and 55 (part three) of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and therefore in themselves cannot be considered as violating constitutional rights the applicant listed in the complaint. Verification of the correctness of the application by the court of general jurisdiction of the contested legal provisions, taking into account the factual circumstances of a particular case and, therefore, verification of the legality of the judgment does not fall within the competence of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, as established by Art. 125 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and Art. 3 Federal constitutional law "On the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation".

Yu.F. Bespalov, A.Yu. Bespalova

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When resolving issues on recognizing a citizen as an unworthy heir and on removing him from inheritance, the following should be borne in mind:

a) specified in paragraph one of paragraph 1 of Article 1117 Of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, unlawful actions directed against the testator, one of his heirs or against the implementation of the last will of the testator, expressed in the will, are grounds for the loss of the right of inheritance in the case of the deliberate nature of such actions and regardless of the motives and purposes of the commission (including committed on the basis of revenge, jealousy, hooliganism, etc.), as well as regardless of the onset of the corresponding consequences.

Illegal actions directed against the implementation of the last will of the testator, expressed in the will, as a result of the commission of which citizens lose the right to inherit on the specified basis, may consist, for example, in forging a will, its destruction or embezzlement, forcing the testator to draw up or revoke a will, forcing heirs to rejection of inheritance.

The heir is unworthy according to paragraph one of paragraph 1 of Article 1117 Of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, provided that the the circumstances that are the basis for the disqualification from inheritance are confirmed in court - a court verdict in a criminal case or a court decision in a civil case (for example, on the invalidation of a will committed under the influence of violence or threat);

b) making a court decision declaring the heir unworthy in accordance with the first paragraphs and second paragraph 1 of article 1117 Civil Code of the Russian Federation is not required. In specified in this paragraph cases a citizen is excluded from the list of heirs by a notary, in the proceedings of which the inheritance case is located, upon providing him with an appropriate sentence or court decision.

When considering claims for removal from inheritance by law in accordance with paragraph 2 of Article 1117 Courts of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation should take into account that the obligations specified in it for the maintenance of the testator, the malicious evasion of which is the basis for satisfying such requirements, are determined by the alimony obligations of family members established by the IC of the Russian Federation between parents and children, spouses, brothers and sisters, grandfathers and grandmothers. and grandchildren, stepchildren and stepdaughters and stepfather and stepmother (Articles 80, 85, 87, 89, 93 - 95 and 97). Citizens can be removed from inheritance on the indicated grounds if the obligation to maintain the testator is established by a court decision on the recovery of alimony. Such a court decision is not required only in cases concerning the provision of maintenance by parents to their minor children.

The malicious nature of the evasion in each case must be determined taking into account the duration and reasons for non-payment of the funds involved.

The court removes the heir from inheritance on the specified basis upon proof of the fact of his willful evasion from the fulfillment of obligations for the maintenance of the testator, which can be confirmed a court judgment on conviction for malicious evasion of funds for the maintenance of children or disabled parents, a court decision on liability for late payment of alimony, a certificate from bailiffs on alimony arrears, other evidence... Not only failure to provide content without good reason can be recognized as malicious evasion from the performance of these duties, but also concealment by an alimony liable person of the actual amount of his earnings and (or) income, change of place of work or place of residence, commission of other actions for the same purposes.

A claim for the disqualification of an unworthy heir from inheritance on this basis can be filed by any person interested in invoking inheritance or in increasing the share of the inheritance due to him, by the legatee, or by a person whose rights and legitimate interests (for example, the right to use the inherited dwelling) may affect the transfer of inherited property.