[Breaking] "Unconstitutional to Apply 10-Year Statute of Limitations to Claim for Inherited Share Value by Heir After Commencement of Inheritance"

The Constitutional Court has ruled that the Civil Code provision applying the 10-year statute of limitations for the claim to recover inheritance to cases where a joint heir becomes such through recognition after the decedent’s death and claims payment equivalent to their share of the inheritance from other joint heirs excessively infringes on the claimant’s property rights and right to judicial relief, thus violating the Constitution.

On the 27th, the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional, by a 7 (unconstitutional) to 2 (constitutional) decision, the part of Article 1014 related to Paragraph 2 of Article 999 of the Civil Code, which sets the statute of limitations for the claim to recover inheritance.

Article 999 (Claim to Recover Inheritance) Paragraph 2 of the Civil Code states, "The claim to recover inheritance under Paragraph 1 shall be extinguished if three years have passed since the claimant became aware of the infringement, or ten years have passed since the act infringing the inheritance rights occurred."

Article 1014 (Claims of Recognized Heirs after Partition, etc.) of the Civil Code provides, "When a person who becomes a joint heir through recognition or final judgment after the commencement of inheritance requests partition of the inheritance property, if other joint heirs have already partitioned or otherwise disposed of the property, the recognized heir has the right to claim payment equivalent to their share of the inheritance."

The Constitutional Court stated, "Applying the 10-year statute of limitations from the date of the infringement of inheritance rights to the claim for payment of the inheritance share by a person who became a joint heir through recognition or final judgment after the commencement of inheritance excessively prioritizes legal certainty through the statute of limitations. This only grants a formal or theoretical possibility of inheritance recovery to the joint heir who became such after inheritance commencement, ignoring the practical effectiveness of the right to relief. Therefore, the provision under review exceeds the limits of legislative discretion and infringes on the claimant’s property rights and right to judicial relief."

Under the Civil Code, recognition (inji) has retroactive effect to the time of birth, granting the status of a biological child. The Constitutional Court explained, "The provision under review prevents the recognized heir from exercising the claim for payment of their inheritance share if ten years have passed since the infringement of inheritance rights, even if recognition or final judgment occurs later. This contradicts the legislative intent to compensate the recognized heir’s inheritance rights belatedly through an indirect and compromise method of monetary return, and completely deprives the recognized heir of effective relief."