Recently, the Italian Supreme Court (Corte di Cassazione) ruled on a complex case of joint inheritance, providing important clarification on the legitimacy of legal action by individual heirs.
The case began with the death of one of two business partners. The surviving partner, without involving the deceased partner’s heirs, registered all the company assets in his name. One of the heirs of the deceased partner decided to take legal action to claim 50% of a piece of land, valued at 1 million euros, which had been registered by the surviving partner.
In the first instance, the heir’s claim was dismissed because it was deemed that the action had been initiated too late, as they should have challenged the company’s liquidation balance sheet. However, the appellate judge overturned this decision, ordering the surviving partner to pay the heir 50% of the land’s value.
The surviving partner appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing, among other things, that a single heir could not act alone for the entire claim but must act together with all the other heirs. However, the Supreme Court, in its 2024 decision, rejected this argument, referring to a similar ruling from 2007.
The Court established that, in a joint inheritance, it is not possible to determine the specific share of inheritance for each co-heir; therefore, each heir has the right to act for the entire claim without needing to involve the other heirs in the lawsuit. The internal relationships among co-heirs regarding the division of assets remain irrelevant to the debtor.
Consequently, even a single heir can initiate legal action to claim the entire amount.
This ruling highlights the importance for debtors to involve all heirs in legal proceedings to avoid the risk of multiple lawsuits by co-heirs acting separately.