Laurence Hibade

Unworthiness and ingratitude in inheritance matters Laurence Hibade

In Greek mythology, the virtuous heroes tasted in the dead the pleasures they had sought on earth; for the same reason, the guilty were struck with punishments that consisted in a painful contrast with their past life. Thus, to atone for the offense he had committed against Pluto, Theseus, who had been a constant wanderer and traveler, was condemned in the Underworld to sit forever. Two sanctions provided by family law could be compared with the punishment inflicted on Theseus. These are the unworthiness of inheritance and the revocation of gifts for ingratitude. The demerit of the unworthy or ungrateful successor towards his author reverses the principles of succession formulated for his benefit. The wrongful act will mark the passage from a legal situation to its opposite, id is the retroactive loss of a benefit as if the successor had never been entitled to it.