Facts

The appellant [A.] is the only daughter of the testator [C.] , who died on 9 March 2019. He left a second wife, the respondent [B.] . On 11 January 2018 the testator made a public will in which he appointed the wife as sole heir and excluded the daughter as heir. The daughter was instead granted a legacy equal to the statutory reserved portion, less the gifts already received that are subject to collation. In addition, numerous expenditures by the testator in favour of the daughter (upbringing, education, horses, cars, house conversion, cash gifts of approximately Fr. 500'000.--) were to be offset up to Fr. 5 million. Four legacies of Fr. 50'000.-- each were also provided for.

On 31 May 2019 the District Court of [U.] opened the will. In para. 6 of the judgment it ordered that a certificate of inheritance be issued to the wife upon written request, unless an objection under Art. 559 para. 1 CC was lodged within one month.

The daughter lodged an appeal on 13 June 2019 with the Obergericht of the Canton of Zurich. She requested a declaration that she was an heir entitled to the reserved portion and universal successor, as well as the supplementation of para. 6 of the first-instance judgment so that a certificate of inheritance also be issued to her upon request. The Obergericht dismissed the appeal by judgment of 31 July 2019.

By submission of 11 September 2019 the daughter applied to the Federal Supreme Court and maintained her cantonal requests. The Federal Supreme Court obtained the cantonal files but no responses.

Considerations

The subject of the appeal is whether the single judge, in the official opening of the will (Art. 557 CC), informed the correct persons of the possibility of requesting a certificate of inheritance under Art. 559 para. 1 CC. The appeal period under Art. 100 para. 1 FSCA has been observed, the Obergericht is the last cantonal instance with jurisdiction (Art. 75 FSCA), the decision is a final decision (Art. 90 FSCA) and the amount in dispute exceeds Fr. 30'000.-- (Art. 74 para. 1 lit. b FSCA).

Under Art. 76 para. 1 lit. b FSCA, only a party that is particularly affected and has a legitimate interest in the annulment or amendment of the decision is entitled to appeal. This interest must be current and practical, the party must assert a concrete violation of rights and may not confine itself to abstract legal questions. Whether a current interest exists is assessed according to the effects of a possible upholding of the appeal. If it is already lacking at the time of filing, the Federal Supreme Court does not enter into the matter (BGE 131 I 153 E. 1.2; BGE 136 III 497 E. 2.1).

The opening of a will is an act of non-contentious jurisdiction. Any inheritance certificate forecast by the opening authority is based on a merely provisional and non-prejudicial interpretation of the testamentary disposition. It is neither binding nor has substantive legal effect. The assessment of the substantive legal position rests solely with the ordinary civil judge. This applies equally to the procedure of will opening and to the issuance of…