Dominican parents can exclude children from inheritance

The First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) established that the exclusion of the inheritance due to indignity or disinheritance constitutes a civil sanction that entails the deprivation of the right to succession of the sanctioned party.

This decision was assumed by the instance based on the interpretation of article 727 of the Civil Code, which indicates that those legitimate or natural children who have incurred in harmful or deceptive actions against their parents may be declared undeserving of receiving the inheritance of their parents.

In this sense, it is derived that children who have mistreated, seriously insulted their parents with deeds or words or who have denied them their protection or assistance, can be declared unworthy to receive the succession of their deceased.

The stated jurisprudential position is in accordance with Article 57 of the Dominican Constitution, which establishes the protection of the elderly as an integral part of fundamental rights.

Thus, it is entirely justified that parents, who in principle are free to dispose of their assets in the manner they deem appropriate for their personal interests, pursue the disinheritance of their child when there has been a break in the affective or sentimental bond, with those children who have incurred in repeated practices of psychic, emotional or physical abuse that is incompatible with the parent-child relationship and the elementary duties of respect and consideration that derive from it, as it happens, in the cases established in articles 727 of the Code Civil and 1 of Law no. 1097-46”, maintains the court.

Therefore, the aforementioned chamber through judgment no. SCJ-PS-22-2191, of July 29, 2022, rejects the appeal filed against civil judgment no. 00076, issued on October 26, 2015 by the Civil and Commercial Chamber of the Court of First Instance of the Judicial District of Espaillat, which has its origin in a lawsuit for succession exclusion of inheritance.

The signatory judges of this decision are Pilar Jiménez Ortiz (who presides over the first Chamber), Justiniano Montero Montero, Samuel A. Arias Arzeno and Napoleón Estévez Lavandier.