Recently, by the King&Capital senior partner Niu Xingli, attorney Guo Xinpeng agent of inheritance disputes, the parties disputed the validity of the video will was confirmed by the court, the client to obtain the final judgment, successfully obtained the house heritage, the work of lawyers to obtain the high praise of the client.

Basic case

The decedent FuMou and the original spouse HaoMou married with FuMouA, FuMouB, FuMouC, FuMouDing four children. 1972 HaoMou died. 1973, FuMou and ChengMou married, no children after marriage. When FuMou and ChengMou married, FuMouA and FuMouB were adults, FuMouC and FuMouDing were not yet adults, belonging to ChengMou stepchildren.

In 2003, Cheng died. 2020 October, the decedent Fu died. Fu died left the main legacy for the 1994 purchase of a set of Beijing real estate, Fu died on behalf of Fu Mou Ding will write a will, will leave the property to Fu Mou Ding, for the sake of prudence, Fu Mou Ding asked two colleagues as a witness to the will, the whole process of synchronous audio-visual recording.

After the death of FuMou, FuMouBi, FuMouCan't recognize the validity of the will, that should be according to the legal inheritance of the property, the parties on the property inheritance dispute, to the court.

Schematic diagram of kinship

This case involves typical issues of inheritance cases such as the legal requirements for the form of wills, the validity of audio-visual wills, and the rules of application of the Inheritance Law and the Civil Code, etc. It has high requirements for lawyers to choose litigation strategies, and belongs to the inheritance disputes cases with great significance.

Analysis of key points

1、Substitute will and video will coexist, how to choose?

The law stipulates that the will should be written by the witness, and in this case, the will is written by the heir FuMouDing, does not comply with the legal form, there is a risk of being ruled invalid, so the organizing lawyers finally chose to give up the will, and turn to video as a will to the people's court, in order to avoid invalid will to enter into the risk of legal inheritance.

2. Video will is an independent will or a substitute will auxiliary video?

Although the videotaped will in this case is a record of the process of writing a will, it is a complete and clear record of the true intention of the decedent to dispose of the inheritance, with the complete content of the will, and there are two witnesses to witness the whole process, which is in line with the legal form of the will, therefore, the videotaped will is an independent legal form of the will, rather than an auxiliary video of the writing of the will.

3. the legal effect of the video will?

This video will be formed, the civil code has not yet come into force, should be applied to the original "inheritance law", although the "inheritance law" on the form of video will have no clear provisions, but the judicial practice has been generally recognized as a valid form of video wills; this case into the stage of litigation, the civil code has come into force, according to the civil code of the time effect of the judicial interpretations of the relevant provisions of the original law has no relevant provisions of the civil code and the civil code has a clear stipulation of the civil code can be applied. Therefore, this case should also apply the civil code to determine the effectiveness of the video will, the video will in this case meets the civil code on the legal form of the video will, is a valid will. Therefore, whether applying the original inheritance law or the civil code, the video will is a valid will.

After analyzing the case as a whole, the lawyer then started to work, first of all, visited many public security organs to retrieve all the kinship relations between FuMou and ChengMou, and confirmed that ChengMou's heirs are only FuMou and his minor stepchildren, FuMouC, FuMouD; at the same time, contacted the two witnesses of the video, and verified the real situation on the day of the video to them, and asked them to testify in the court after obtaining the consent of the witnesses; lastly, the video will is a valid will. Finally, after synthesizing all the facts and legal issues, the attorney proposed that Fu Mou C should be entitled to one-sixth share of the house according to legal inheritance, and Fu Mou Ding should be entitled to five-sixth share of the house according to legal and testamentary inheritance.

Schematic diagram of the share of house inheritance

In the end, the legal opinion of the lawyer was recognized by the court of first and second instance, and the people's court finally ruled that the house belonged to Fu Mou Ding, and that Fu Mou Ding should pay one-sixth of the value of the house to Fu Mou C. The legal interests of the client were thus protected by the court's decision. As a result, the client's legitimate interests have been fully protected.

Lawyer's Advice

Family inheritance cases are often complicated, especially when there are multiple wills, the validity of the will becomes the key to the smooth inheritance of the estate, and the slightest mistake may lead to the risk of invalidation of the will. Therefore, the lawyer reminds, when making a will, should pay attention to the following issues:

1. The Civil Code specifies five types of wills: self-written will, written will, printed will, audio-visual will and notarized will, and the heirs can choose the appropriate type of will according to their own situation;

2. Articles 1133 to 1144 of the Civil Code clearly stipulate the form requirements of each type of will. When making a will, the heirs should adopt a form that complies with the legal requirements, and if in doubt, they should consult professionals in time to prevent disputes over the validity of the will;

3. In addition to the formal requirements for the conclusion of a will, the content should also comply with the provisions of the law and should not violate the mandatory provisions of the law.