How a woman from Iasi ended up suing her dead father in order to transfer her apartment to her name
A seemingly trivial inheritance turned for a woman from Iași into an absurd legal labyrinth: in order to transfer her apartment to her name, she had to sue her own father, who had been dead for five years. And the judges' decision complicated the situation even more.
A woman from Iasi sued her dead father PHOTO: Pexels
Angela G., from Iași, ended up in a situation hard to imagine. After inheriting an apartment, she found herself legally indebted to herself. It all started in 2000, when her parents divorced, and the court decided that the family apartment should remain with the mother. However, she had to pay her ex-husband 50 million old lei, an amount that has not been paid.
In 2012, Angela's mother died, and the woman became the sole heir: she received the apartment, but also the debt to her father. Practically, legally speaking, she owed money to her own father, reports Ziarul de Iasi.
The years passed, and in 2019 the father also died. Angela also inherited him, taking over his right to collect the amount owed. Thus, a paradox was reached: the woman was simultaneously debtor and creditor for the same debt, estimated at approximately 5,000 new lei.
The snag: He just wanted to tabulate his apartment
The situation didn't really become problematic until Angela tried to tabulate the apartment. In the land book, however, there was a charge: the sulta owed to the father.
To erase such a burden, the law requires a notarized declaration from the beneficiary, in this case her father, confirming that he has been compensated. As the man was deceased, there was no one to sign the deed.
The woman then went to court and asked for the statute of limitations, arguing that the father could not have asked for the money even if he had been alive. Therefore, the task should have been deleted.
Judges: “The trial, promoted against a person lacking legal capacity”
However, the court rejected the request, reasoning that there cannot be a civil suit against a deceased person.
The judges explained that a trial is possible only if the parties have “procedural capacity to use”that is, they are alive and can have rights and obligations. In justifying the decision, they specified that the process was “promoted against a person lacking legal capacity”.
The court also told the woman: “To erase the burden, the party has at its disposal the non-contentious procedure provided by the legal regulations in force regarding entries in the cadastre and land register records, a procedure that can be carried out with the OCPI-BCPI contestIn other words, the Court sent it back to the Cadastre – the institution from which it all started.
The Court's decision is not final. Angela G. contested the decision, and the case reached the Iași Court. Another court is yet to decide whether and how this rare legal deadlock can be resolved.
