The Supreme Court ruled that the revised Civil Act, which bars families who committed immoral acts from inheriting, must be applied retroactively. The retroactive scope covers cases pending in court on Apr. 25, 2024, when the old Civil Act provision that recognized a reserved portion for immoral family members was held to be unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court's First Division (Presiding Justice Shin Sook-hee) on the 25th overturned an appellate ruling that had partially found for the plaintiffs in a suit to confirm the invalidity of a will filed by child B and others against child A, who had inherited most of the assets after their father's death, and sent the case back to the Gwangju High Court.
After the father died in Oct. 2021, A inherited most of the assets. Older brother B filed a lawsuit in May 2022 to claim a reserved portion. A reserved portion is the minimum share of inheritance set by law to prevent the deceased from leaving property only to specific persons through a will or inter vivos gifts.
While the reserved-portion suit was ongoing, the Constitutional Court on Apr. 25, 2024, decided that the Civil Act provision guaranteeing a reserved portion even to immoral family members violates the Constitution. In line with that decision, the National Assembly revised the Civil Act on Feb. 12 this year, and it was promulgated and took effect on Mar. 17. The revised Civil Act provides in its addenda that the clause barring immoral family members from receiving a reserved portion applies retroactively only when inheritance begins on or after Apr. 25, 2024.
The first and second trials held that A must return the reserved portion to B. The appellate ruling came in Nov. last year, after the Constitutional Court found the old Civil Act provisions on the reserved portion unconstitutional. In the appellate court, A argued that B had committed immoral acts and that A had supported the father, so under the Constitutional Court's reasoning B's reserved portion could not be recognized, but the bench rejected the claim.
By contrast, the Supreme Court said, "Although the addenda to the revised Civil Act provide that the new provisions are retroactive only when inheritance begins on or after Apr. 25, 2024, the date of the Constitutional Court's decision, the retroactive effect of the incompatibility-with-the-Constitution decision must be deemed to reach parallel cases in which the former provisions were a premise of adjudication and the cases were pending in court at the time of the incompatibility decision."
Accordingly, the Gwangju High Court must rehear the case on remand under the revised Civil Act.
Like the parties in this case, a co-heir who learned of an immoral family member's inheritance before the revised Civil Act took effect must file for loss of inheritance rights with the family court by Sept. 16 to protect their rights in a reserved-portion case.