Pla and Puncernau v. Andorra (dec.)

Information Note on the Court’s case-law 54

June 2003

Pla and Puncernau v. Andorra (dec.) - 69498/01

Decision 27.5.2003 [Section IV]

Article 14

Discrimination

Exclusion of adopted child from inheritance: admissible

The applicants are an adopted son and his mother. Their father/husband was the beneficiary and heir subject to a trust of his mother’s estate under her will. The will stated that he was to leave the estate forming the subject-matter of the will to a child or grandchild of a marriage under civil or canon law, failing which the benefit of the estate would pass to the children and grandchildren of his elder sister, failing that to the son of his younger sister. The (female) applicant went through a canonic marriage with the heir. By codicil of 3 July 1995, the (male) applicant’s adoptive father and the applicant’s husband left the assets of his mother’s estate to his adoptive son as remainderman and to his wife as tenant for life. Following his death, the testatrix’s great-granddaughters – who were also potential heirs under the will– took the view that the (male) applicant, as an adopted child, could not benefit under the testatrix’s will and brought a civil action. By their action, they essentially sought a declaration that the codicil of 3 July 1995 was void and inoperative and an order that the applicants should hand over to them all the assets of the estate. The Batlles d’Andorra court dismissed the action, holding in particular that the testatrix could not be said to have intended to exclude adopted or non-biological children from the estate. In May 2000, the High Court of Justice of Andorra, on appeal, set aside the contested judgment. The court held that various matters, resulting in particular from the Catalan and Andorran legal tradition, made it possible to infer from the wording of the will that the testatrix had not wished to include the adoptive children of the heir subject to the trust among the beneficiaries of the estate. The court annulled the codicil of 3 July 1995, declared the applicants the lawful heirs of their great-grandmother’s estate and ordered the applicants to surrender the assets. The applicants appealed, without success.

Admissible under Article 8 taken in conjunction with Article 14. The Court dismisses the respondent Government’s preliminary objection that these articles are inapplicable.

© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights
This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.

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