Three daughters fight over inheritance; the case will be reheard by the district court

AT Department of Civil Affairs examined the cassation complaint regarding the judgment of the Riga Regional Court, by which the inheritance was divided according to the procedures established by the court, and recognized that the norms governing the termination of joint ownership, not the distribution of the inheritance, were applicable in the adjudication of the dispute, therefore the judgment of the lower instance court was canceled and the case was sent for new consideration.

LETA informed the AT agency that the plaintiff and the defendants are the daughters of the bequeather. The will states that the inheritance is to be divided among the daughters in equal parts. One daughter filed a lawsuit against the other two, asking to divide the movable property of the inheritance by selling it at auction. The other daughter, on the other hand, filed a counterclaim, asking to divide the inheritance according to her proposed option.

In court, it is stated that, first of all, the inheritance is a community and it can be divided only once – by house order or by court. Secondly, the division of inheritance carried out in the household order cannot be challenged in court. Thirdly, the property that remained undivided after the distribution of the inheritance can be divided not as an inheritance, but as joint property, and it can be dealt with both domestically and through court.

It follows from the appealed judgment that the appellate court has repeatedly divided the shares and capital shares included in the inheritance mass, for which the heirs had already concluded an agreement, as well as the real estates to which the heirs have already confirmed their property rights in the land register. Since there is a reason to conclude that the inheritance was divided according to the house order, its repeated distribution by court judgment is not permissible, concluded AT.

The heirs’ dispute regarding the termination of joint ownership regarding the inherited property, which was not covered by the agreement on the distribution of the inheritance, can be decided in the procedure of the claim, said AT.