Facts
Parties:
- [A.] and [B.] (Appellants)
- [C.] (Appellee 1)
- [D.] (Appellee 2)
Facts:
- Founding and restructuring of companies by [E.] and [C.] .
- Death of the testator [E.] on February 13, 2018.
- Estate division claim by the appellants against appellee 1 and appellee 2.
- Information claims by the appellants regarding annual financial statements, share register, and tax returns.
- Decision of the Canton Court of Basel-Landschaft on January 25, 2022.
Proceedings:
- Appeal to the Federal Supreme Court by the appellants.
- Submissions of the lower court and appellee 1.
- Rejoinder of the appellants.
Considerations
The appellants request the disclosure of annual financial statements, share register, and tax returns of appellee 1. The lower court had dismissed the legal requests items 3l and 3m, as it qualified the transfer of the wine business of [I. AG] to [J. AG] as a disposal under Art. 630 para. 1 CC. The appellants argue that no disposal is present and the lower court incorrectly applied Art. 610 para. 2 CC.
The Federal Supreme Court finds that the lower court ruled in violation of federal law by qualifying the in-kind contribution as a disposal. The founding of [J. AG] and the in-kind contribution cannot be considered as a disposal of a potential compensation-requiring lifetime gift to appellee 1. The appellants have a right to information about the value development of the shares of [J. AG] .
The lower court dismissed the disputed information requests solely because it incorrectly assumed that the in-kind contribution made in connection with the founding of [J. AG] should be qualified as a disposal of the compensation-requiring gift. The lower court did not examine whether the requested information is also otherwise useful for determining the value of the gift at the time of the opening of…