The introduced quarantine restrictions, together with the peculiarities of labor activity, may indicate the presence of objective, significant difficulties for the timely submission of an application for acceptance of inheritance.
The Civil Court of Cassation recalled this while considering the complaint of the plaintiff, who was refused by the courts of previous instances to determine an additional term for accepting the inheritance (case No. 205/3310/20 ).
At the end of April 2020, the man turned to a private notary about submitting an application for acceptance of inheritance. But he informed him about the missed deadline and recommended to go to court. However, the courts also considered that staying abroad for one week during a 6-month period could not prevent a timely application for inheritance.
However, the CCS drew attention to the provisions of Part 3 of Article 1272 of the Civil Code, which state that valid reasons for missing the deadline for accepting inheritance are those related to objective, insurmountable, significant difficulties for the heir to perform these actions.
The courts did not take into account that since March 12, 2020, quarantine was introduced in Ukraine, as a result of which the movement of citizens, reception of citizens by state notary offices and private notaries was limited. It
affected the claimant's omission of the 6-month period, which, moreover, was insignificant (21 days — the time for which, in particular, quarantine restrictions fell).
So the CCS satisfied the claim and gave the husband an additional term to accept the inheritance.