Restoration of the Period for Acceptance of an Inheritance: Challenging Issues of Theory and Practice

The article analyzes the legal compositions to which the law binds the restoration of the term for acceptance of inheritance, as well as court practice on relevant disputes. The author comes to the conclusion that the approach formed by the courts and supported in the scientific literature, according to which the determining factor for recognizing the validity of the reason for missing the deadline is the heir’s compliance with the obligation to take interest in the life of the testator and to take care of him, is not based on legal prescriptions, because it makes the possibility of accepting the inheritance dependent on the assessment of the heir’s behavior in terms of moral norms. Meanwhile, with rare exceptions, the right of inheritance does not depend on the moral assessment of the heir’s behavior, which obliges the courts to consider the question of the validity of ignorance only on the basis of whether specific life circumstances gave the heir an instrument to obtain information about the opening of the inheritance.