Important decision
The Constitutional Court has defended a man who was denied the opportunity to receive his grandmother’s inheritance because of the notary’s misconduct. In exceptional cases, according to the ruling, a claim for compensation for an unlawful decision can be made even if the victim had no realistic means of getting it overturned.
The grandson did not learn of the existence of the will until almost 16 years later, when the court informed him of the finding of the notarial record of 1973. However, the inheritance proceedings had already taken place in 2005 without any mention of the will, and the entire estate then went to his mother as the sole legal heir. The grandson knew that the will existed because his grandmother had informed him of it before her death. According to the court, the notary was at fault because she did not find the will, even though she had sufficient evidence to do so. The grandson therefore claimed compensation for non-pecuniary damage.
However, the general courts rejected the claim on the grounds that the decision in the succession proceedings had never been overturned. However, the Constitutional Court rejected this formalistic interpretation. If the injured party had no realistic possibility of obtaining a change or annulment of the decision due to the public authority’s misconduct, this could not be a reason for rejecting the claim. The grandson thus gets a second chance to seek justice.
The full text of the Constitutional Court’s ruling is available here.
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