Successful appeal to revise a legally binding decision on inheritance acquisition

By decision of 26 May 2020, the District Court in Poznań, as a result of an appeal filed by the Law Firm on behalf of a local government unit of the Commune – as a statutory heir, changed the contested decision in a case concerning an amendment to the decision to declare the inheritance acquisition and determined the correct statutory heir.  

Proceedings were pending before the District Court in Szamotuły brought by the District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Szamotuły with the participation of a local government unit (Commune considered to be a statutory heir) represented by the Law Firm aimed at changing the legally binding decision to declare the inheritance acquisition. The group of heirs has been incorrectly established in the case, and the decision issued in this case has become legally binding. 

The Law Firm submitted an application to the District Prosecutor’s Office to undertake actions aimed at changing the legally binding decision. Although the Court of first instance dismissed the motion of the District Prosecutor’s Office in Szamotuły, as a result of the appeal filed by the Law Firm, the District Court in Poznań changed the contested decision and stated that the inheritance has been acquired by another commune of the last place of residence of the testator. Thus, as a result of the steps taken by the Law Firm, the circle of heirs has been properly established. The problem in the case concerned an erroneous determination of the commune of the last place of residence of the testator- it was the City, not the Commune, with the City not being part of the Commune. The District Court in Szamotuły did have the documents from which this circumstance emerged. 

The legal basis relevant to the case was the provision of Article 679 § 1 sentence 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, according to which proof that a person who has obtained a statement of inheritance acquisition is not an heir or that their share in the inheritance is different from that stated can only be carried out in proceedings for revoking or changing the statement of inheritance acquisition, using the provisions of this chapter. This is a special procedure, replacing the procedures for the resumption of the proceedings.  

In the course of the proceedings, it was necessary to prove that the decision under which the list of heirs was wrongly established cannot remain in the legal system because it is contrary to the actual state of affairs and therefore cannot correspond to the law. 

The case is already legally closed and the represented Commune has not acquired inheritance debts of almost PLN 3 million. The inheritance has been acquired by the City with limitations. 

The Commune was successfully represented in this case by: attorney Anna Marciniak and attorney Aneta Fornalik.