Rejection of the request for restitution of the time limit to request the benefit of inventory

Facts

X., a banker, passed away in Geneva in 1974. His heirs (his wife and daughters) tacitly accepted the succession. In 1977, they requested the Justice of the Peace of Geneva to grant them a new time limit to request the benefit of inventory, invoking by analogy Art. 576 CC. This request was rejected by the Justice of the Peace.

The heirs appealed against this decision to the Federal Tribunal, alleging a violation of Art. 4 Cst. They argued that the refusal to apply Art. 576 CC by analogy was arbitrary, given the particular situation in which they found themselves.

Considerations

The Federal Tribunal dismissed the appeal. It noted that Art. 580 CC, which governs the time limit for requesting the benefit of inventory, does not expressly provide for the possibility of extending or restoring this time limit, unlike Art. 576 CC in the matter of renunciation of succession.

Although the prevailing opinion accepts the application by analogy of Art. 576 CC to the time limit of Art. 580 CC, the Federal Tribunal considered that the refusal of the Justice of the Peace to grant the request of the heirs could not be qualified as arbitrary. The Tribunal held that the cantonal judge could, without arbitrariness, take into account the…