If the cli­ent's spouse, re­gistered part­ner, par­ents, is­sue, sib­ling, or de facto life part­ner is ap­poin­ted deputy, the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity may wholly or partly ab­solve the deputy of the ob­lig­a­tions to pre­pare an in­vent­ory, sub­mit reg­u­lar re­ports and ac­counts, and ob­tain con­sent for spe­cif­ic trans­ac­tion if this is jus­ti­fied by the cir­cum­stances.

The of­fice of deputy ter­min­ates by law:

1.

on ex­piry of a term of of­fice set by the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity, un­less the deputy is con­firmed in of­fice;

2.

with the end of the deputy­ship;

3.

with ter­min­a­tion of em­ploy­ment as a pro­fes­sion­al deputy;

4.

in the event that the deputy is made sub­ject to a deputy­ship, be­comes in­cap­able of judge­ment, or dies.

¹The deputy may re­quest to be dis­charged at the earli­est after serving a term of four years.

²Pri­or to this, the deputy may re­quest to be dis­charged for good cause.

¹The adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall dis­charge the deputy if:

1.

he or she is no longer suit­able to carry out the tasks;

2.

there is oth­er good cause for his or her dis­charge.

²The cli­ent or a closely as­so­ci­ated per­son may re­quest that the deputy be dis­charged.

The deputy must con­tin­ue with trans­ac­tions that can­not be post­poned un­til a suc­cessor takes over of­fice, un­less the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity or­ders oth­er­wise. This pro­vi­sion does not ap­ply to a pro­fes­sion­al deputy.

¹When the term of of­fice ends, the deputy shall sub­mit a fi­nal re­port to the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity and if ap­plic­able file the fi­nal ac­counts. The adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity may waive this re­quire­ment for pro­fes­sion­al depu­ties if the em­ploy­ment re­la­tion­ship ends.

²The adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall ex­am­ine and ap­prove the fi­nal re­port and the fi­nal ac­counts in the same way as the reg­u­lar re­ports and ac­counts.

³It shall pass on the fi­nal re­port and fi­nal ac­counts to the cli­ent or his or her heirs and if ap­plic­able to the new deputy and shall at the same time draw the at­ten­tion of these per­sons to the pro­vi­sions on ac­count­ab­il­ity.

⁴It shall also in­form them wheth­er it ex­on­er­ated the deputy or re­fused to ap­prove the fi­nal re­port or the fi­nal ac­counts.

¹A per­son suf­fer­ing from a men­tal dis­order or men­tal dis­ab­il­ity or ser­i­ous neg­lect (the pa­tient) may be com­mit­ted to an ap­pro­pri­ate in­sti­tu­tion if the re­quired treat­ment or care can­not be provided oth­er­wise.

²The bur­den that the pa­tient places on fam­ily mem­bers and third parties and their pro­tec­tion must be taken in­to ac­count.

³The pa­tient shall be dis­charged as soon as the re­quire­ments for hos­pit­al­isa­tion no longer are ful­filled.

⁴The pa­tient or a closely re­lated per­son may re­quest his or her dis­charge at any time. A de­cision must be made on the re­quest im­me­di­ately.

¹If a per­son suf­fer­ing from a men­tal dis­order who has entered an in­sti­tu­tion vol­un­tar­ily wishes to leave the in­sti­tu­tion, he or she may be de­tained by the in­sti­tu­tion's med­ic­al man­age­ment for a max­im­um of three days if he or she:

1.

is a risk to his or her own life or limb; or

2.

is a ser­i­ous risk to the life or the phys­ic­al in­teg­rity of oth­ers.

²At the end of the three day peri­od, the pa­tient may leave the in­sti­tu­tion un­less he or she is sub­ject to an en­force­able hos­pit­al­isa­tion or­der.

³The pa­tient shall be no­ti­fied in writ­ing that he or she may pe­ti­tion the court.

¹The adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity is re­spons­ible for or­der­ing hos­pit­al­isa­tion and dis­charge.

²In spe­cif­ic cases, it may del­eg­ate re­spons­ib­il­ity for dis­charge to the in­sti­tu­tion.

¹The can­tons may des­ig­nate doc­tors who in ad­di­tion to the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity are au­thor­ised to or­der hos­pit­al­isa­tion for a peri­od spe­cified by can­ton­al law. The peri­od may not ex­ceed six weeks.

²Hos­pit­al­isa­tion may not con­tin­ue bey­ond the spe­cified peri­od at the latest un­less an en­force­able hos­pit­al­isa­tion or­der from the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity ap­plies.

³The in­sti­tu­tion de­cides on dis­charge.

¹The doc­tor shall ex­am­ine and in­ter­view the pa­tient in per­son.

²The hos­pit­al­isa­tion or­der shall con­tain at least the fol­low­ing in­form­a­tion:

1.

the place and date of the ex­am­in­a­tion;

2.

the name of the doc­tor;

3.

the dia­gnos­is, reas­ons there­for and the pur­pose of hos­pit­al­isa­tion;

4.

in­struc­tions on rights of ap­peal.

³An ap­peal does not have sus­pens­ive ef­fect un­less the doc­tor or the com­pet­ent court or­ders oth­er­wise.

⁴A copy of the hos­pit­al­isa­tion or­der shall be giv­en to the pa­tient; a fur­ther copy shall be giv­en to the in­sti­tu­tion on the pa­tient's ad­mis­sion.

⁵The doc­tor shall if pos­sible no­ti­fy a per­son closely re­lated to the pa­tient in writ­ing on his or her com­mit­tal and on the rights of ap­peal.

¹The adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall con­duct a re­view at the latest six months after hos­pit­al­isa­tion of wheth­er the re­quire­ments for hos­pit­al­isa­tion are still be­ing met and wheth­er the in­sti­tu­tion is still suit­able.

²It shall con­duct a second re­view with­in the fol­low­ing six months. There­after it shall con­duct a re­view as of­ten as ne­ces­sary, but at least once every year.

Any per­son com­mit­ted to an in­sti­tu­tion may ap­point a per­son that he or she trusts as a rep­res­ent­at­ive to sup­port him or her dur­ing his or her stay and un­til the con­clu­sion of all re­lated pro­ced­ures.

¹If a per­son is com­mit­ted to an in­sti­tu­tion to be treated for a men­tal dis­order, the at­tend­ing doc­tor shall draw up writ­ten treat­ment plan in con­sulta­tion with the pa­tient and if ap­plic­able his or her au­thor­ised rep­res­ent­at­ive.

²The doc­tor shall in­form the pa­tient and the au­thor­ised rep­res­ent­at­ive of all mat­ters rel­ev­ant to the planned med­ic­al pro­ced­ures, and in par­tic­u­lar the reas­ons there­for, their pur­pose, nature, mod­al­it­ies, risks and side ef­fects, of the con­sequences of not un­der­go­ing treat­ment and of any al­tern­at­ive treat­ment op­tions.

³The treat­ment plan shall be giv­en to the pa­tient so that he or she may con­sent. Where the pa­tient is in­cap­able of judge­ment, ac­count must be taken of any pa­tient de­cree.

⁴The treat­ment plan is ad­jus­ted to take ac­count of on­go­ing de­vel­op­ments.

¹In the ab­sence of the pa­tient's con­sent, the chief phys­i­cian in the de­part­ment may or­der in writ­ing the med­ic­al pro­ced­ures planned in the treat­ment plan if:

1.

fail­ure to carry out the treat­ment could lead to ser­i­ous dam­age to the pa­tient's health or ser­i­ously en­danger the life or the phys­ic­al in­teg­rity of third parties;

2.

the pa­tient is un­able to ex­er­cise judge­ment in re­la­tion to his or her need for treat­ment; and

3.

no ap­pro­pri­ate meas­ure is avail­able that is less in­vas­ive.

²Writ­ten no­tice of the or­der shall be giv­en to the pa­tient and his or her au­thor­ised rep­res­ent­at­ive to­geth­er with in­struc­tions on rights of ap­peal.

¹In an emer­gency, es­sen­tial med­ic­al pro­ced­ures may be car­ried out im­me­di­ately to pro­tect the pa­tient or third parties.

²If the in­sti­tu­tion is aware how the per­son wishes to be treated, it shall take ac­count of those wishes.

¹If there is a risk that the med­ic­al con­di­tion will re­cur, the at­tend­ing doc­tor shall at­tempt to agree with the cli­ent be­fore dis­charge on prin­ciples for treat­ment in the event that the pa­tient is com­mit­ted to the in­sti­tu­tion again.

²The pre-dis­charge in­ter­view must be doc­u­mented.

¹The can­tons shall reg­u­late fol­low-up care.

²They may provide for out-pa­tient meas­ures.

Meas­ures re­strict­ing the pa­tient's free­dom of move­ment in the in­sti­tu­tion are gov­erned by the pro­vi­sions on re­strict­ing the free­dom of move­ment of pa­tients in res­id­en­tial or care in­sti­tu­tions mu­tatis mutandis. The right to ap­peal to the court is re­served.

¹In the fol­low­ing cases, the pa­tient or a closely re­lated per­son may pe­ti­tion the com­pet­ent court in writ­ing:

1.

in cases of hos­pit­al­isa­tion ordered by a doc­tor;

2.

in cases where the pa­tient is de­tained by the in­sti­tu­tion;

3.

in cases where a re­quest for dis­charge is re­fused by the in­sti­tu­tion;

4.

in cases where a men­tal dis­order is treated without con­sent;

5.

in cases of meas­ures re­strict­ing free­dom of move­ment.

²The dead­line for ap­peal­ing to the court is ten days from the date on which no­tice of the de­cision is giv­en. In the case of meas­ures re­strict­ing free­dom of move­ment, an ap­peal may be made to the court at any time.

³The pro­ced­ure is gov­erned mu­tatis mutandis by the pro­vi­sions on pro­ceed­ings be­fore a ju­di­cial ap­pel­late au­thor­ity.

⁴An ap­plic­a­tion for ju­di­cial as­sess­ment must be passed on to the com­pet­ent court im­me­di­ately.

¹The adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity is a spe­cial­ist au­thor­ity. It is ap­poin­ted by the can­tons.

²It has a quor­um of three mem­bers for tak­ing de­cisions. The can­tons may provide for ex­cep­tions for spe­cif­ic mat­ters.

³It also car­ries out the tasks of the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity.

¹The can­tons shall ap­point the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­it­ies.

²The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may is­sue pro­vi­sions on su­per­vi­sion.

¹The adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity at the place of res­id­ence of the cli­ent has jur­is­dic­tion. In on­go­ing pro­ceed­ings, the same au­thor­ity re­tains jur­is­dic­tion un­til the case has been con­cluded.

²In ur­gent cases, the au­thor­ity where the cli­ent is ac­tu­ally resid­ing has jur­is­dic­tion. If this au­thor­ity car­ries out a meas­ure, it shall no­ti­fy the au­thor­ity in the cli­ent's nor­mal place of res­id­ence.

³In the case of a deputy­ship due to ab­sence, the au­thor­ity at the place where the ma­jor­ity of the as­sets have been man­aged or have been trans­ferred to the cli­ent has jur­is­dic­tion.

⁴The can­tons are en­titled to de­clare the au­thor­ity in the cli­ent's place of ori­gin rather than place of res­id­ence to have jur­is­dic­tion over cit­izens of the can­ton who are res­id­ent in the can­ton, provide the com­mune of ori­gin is wholly or partly re­spons­ible for sup­port­ing per­sons in need.

⁵If a per­son sub­ject to a meas­ure changes place of res­id­ence, the au­thor­ity at the new place shall take re­spons­ib­il­ity for the meas­ure im­me­di­ately, un­less there is good cause for not do­ing so.

¹Any per­son may no­ti­fy the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity if a per­son ap­pears to be in need of as­sist­ance. The pro­vi­sions on pro­fes­sion­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity are re­served.

²Any per­son who while act­ing in an of­fi­cial ca­pa­city learns that a per­son needs as­sist­ance and is un­able to provide this as­sist­ance in the con­text of their pro­fes­sion­al activ­it­ies is re­quired to no­ti­fy the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity. The pro­vi­sions on pro­fes­sion­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity re­main re­served.¹

³The can­tons may provide for fur­ther no­ti­fic­a­tion ob­lig­a­tions.²

¹The adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall veri­fy its jur­is­dic­tion ex officio.

²If it de­cides that it has no jur­is­dic­tion, it shall as­sign the case im­me­di­ately to the au­thor­ity that it re­gards as hav­ing jur­is­dic­tion.

³If it is un­cer­tain as to wheth­er it has jur­is­dic­tion, it shall con­sult the au­thor­ity that it be­lieves may have jur­is­dic­tion.

⁴If no agree­ment is reached after con­sulta­tion, the au­thor­ity ori­gin­ally in­volved shall refer the ques­tion of jur­is­dic­tion to the ap­pel­late au­thor­ity.

¹The adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall at the re­quest of a per­son par­ti­cip­at­ing in the pro­ceed­ings or ex of­fi­cio take all the pre­cau­tion­ary meas­ures re­quired for the dur­a­tion of the pro­ceed­ings. It may in par­tic­u­lar or­der an adult pro­tec­tion meas­ure as a pre­cau­tion­ary meas­ure.

²In cases of par­tic­u­lar ur­gency, it may take pre­cau­tion­ary meas­ures im­me­di­ately without hear­ing the per­sons par­ti­cip­at­ing in the pro­ceed­ings. At the same time, it shall give these per­sons the op­por­tun­ity to ex­press their views, after which it shall re­view its de­cision.

³An ap­peal against pre­cau­tion­ary meas­ures may be filed with­in ten days of no­tice there­of be­ing giv­en.

¹The adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity in­vest­ig­ates the cir­cum­stances of the case ex officio.

²It shall con­duct the re­quired en­quir­ies and gath­er the re­quired evid­ence. It may in­struct a suit­able per­son or agency to carry out en­quir­ies. If ne­ces­sary, it shall com­mis­sion an opin­ion from an ex­pert.

³It is not lim­ited by the re­quests made by the per­sons par­ti­cip­at­ing in the pro­ceed­ings.

⁴It shall ap­ply the law ex of­fi­cio.

¹The cli­ent shall be heard in per­son un­less to do so ap­pears in­ap­pro­pri­ate.

²In a case in­volving care-re­lated hos­pit­al­isa­tion, the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall nor­mally hear the cli­ent nor­mally as a pan­el.

¹The per­sons par­ti­cip­at­ing in the pro­ceed­ings and third parties are ob­liged to co­oper­ate in the en­quir­ies in­to the cir­cum­stances. The adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall make the ar­range­ments re­quired to safe­guard le­git­im­ate in­terests. If ne­ces­sary, it shall or­der the en­force­ment of the duty to co­oper­ate.

²Doc­tors, dent­ists, phar­macists, mid­wives and birth as­sist­ants, chiro­pract­ors and psy­cho­lo­gists and their aux­il­i­ary per­son­nel are only ob­liged to co­oper­ate if the per­son en­titled to con­fid­en­ti­al­ity has au­thor­ised them to do so or if a su­per­i­or au­thor­ity or the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity has re­lieved them of the ob­lig­a­tion of pro­fes­sion­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity at their own re­quest or at the re­quest of the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity.¹

³Mem­bers of the clergy, law­yers, de­fence agents, me­di­at­ors and former wel­fare depu­ties ap­poin­ted in the case are not sub­ject to the ob­lig­a­tion to co­oper­ate.

⁴Ad­min­is­trat­ive au­thor­it­ies and courts shall hand over the re­quired files, draw up re­ports and provide in­form­a­tion un­less le­git­im­ate in­terests re­quire oth­er­wise.

¹If a psy­chi­at­ric as­sess­ment is es­sen­tial and can­not be car­ried out on an out-pa­tient basis, the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall have the cli­ent ad­mit­ted to a suit­able in­sti­tu­tion for as­sess­ment.

²The pro­vi­sions on the pro­ced­ure for care-re­lated hos­pit­al­isa­tion ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

If ne­ces­sary, the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall or­der that the cli­ent be rep­res­en­ted and ap­point a per­son ex­per­i­enced in care-re­lated and leg­al mat­ters as deputy.

¹The per­sons par­ti­cip­at­ing in the pro­ceed­ings have the right to in­spect the case files, un­less le­git­im­ate in­terests re­quire oth­er­wise.

²If a per­son par­ti­cip­at­ing in the pro­ceed­ings is re­fused ac­cess to any case files, the in­form­a­tion therein may only be used in the pro­ceed­ings if the au­thor­ity dis­closes the con­tent rel­ev­ant to the case verbally or in writ­ing to the per­son con­cerned.

The adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall no­ti­fy the civil re­gister of­fice if:

1.

it makes a per­son sub­ject to a gen­er­al deputy­ship due to per­man­ent loss of the ca­pa­city of judge­ment;

2.

an ad­vance care dir­ect­ive be­come ef­fect­ive for a per­son per­man­ently lack­ing ca­pa­city of judge­ment.

¹De­cisions of the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity are sub­ject to a right of ap­peal to the com­pet­ent court.

²The fol­low­ing per­sons have a right of ap­peal:

1.

per­sons par­ti­cip­at­ing in the pro­ceed­ings;

2.

per­sons closely as­so­ci­ated with the cli­ent;

3.

per­sons with a le­git­im­ate in­terest in the con­tested de­cision be­ing re­versed or amended.

³The ap­peal must be filed with the court in writ­ing and with a state­ment of the grounds.

¹The ap­peal may chal­lenge:

1.

an in­fringe­ment of the law;

2.

an in­cor­rect or in­com­plete find­ing of leg­ally rel­ev­ant fact;

3.

an in­ap­pro­pri­ate de­cision.

²An ap­peal is also com­pet­ent on the grounds of deni­al of justice or un­jus­ti­fied delay.

¹The ap­peal must be filed with­in thirty days of no­ti­fic­a­tion of the de­cision. This dead­line also ap­plies to per­sons en­titled to ap­peal who are not re­quired to be no­ti­fied of the de­cision.

²In the case of a de­cision con­cern­ing care-re­lated ac­com­mod­a­tion, the ap­peal must be filed with­in ten days of no­ti­fic­a­tion of the de­cision.

³An ap­peal on the grounds of deni­al of justice or un­jus­ti­fied delay may be filed at any time.

An ap­peal has sus­pens­ive ef­fect un­less the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity or the ju­di­cial ap­pel­late au­thor­ity rules oth­er­wise.

¹The ju­di­cial ap­pel­late au­thor­ity shall give the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity the op­por­tun­ity to ex­press its po­s­i­tion.

²In­stead of sub­mit­ting its views, the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity may re­con­sider its de­cision.

¹A state­ment of grounds is not re­quired for an ap­peal against a de­cision re­lat­ing to care-re­lated hos­pit­al­isa­tion.

²The ap­peal does not have sus­pens­ive ef­fect un­less the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity or the ju­di­cial ap­pel­late au­thor­ity rules oth­er­wise.

³In cases in­volving men­tal dis­orders, the de­cision must be based on the opin­ion of an ex­pert.

⁴The ju­di­cial ap­pel­late au­thor­ity shall nor­mally hear the cli­ent as a pan­el of judges. If ne­ces­sary, it shall or­der that the cli­ent be rep­res­en­ted and ap­point a per­son ex­per­i­enced in care-re­lated and leg­al mat­ters as deputy.

⁵Nor­mally, it de­cides with­in five work­ing days of the ap­peal be­ing filed.

In ad­di­tion, the pro­vi­sions of the Civil Pro­ced­ure Or­din­ance ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis, un­less the can­tons provide oth­er­wise.

¹The adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall en­force de­cisions on re­quest or ex of­fi­cio.

²If the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity or the ju­di­cial ap­pel­late au­thor­ity in the de­cision has already ordered com­puls­ory en­force­ment meas­ures, these may be en­forced dir­ectly.

³The per­son re­spons­ible for en­force­ment may en­list the help of the po­lice if ne­ces­sary. Nor­mally a warn­ing must be giv­en be­fore dir­ect com­puls­ory meas­ures are ap­plied.

¹The adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity is sub­ject to a duty of con­fid­en­ti­al­ity in the ab­sence of over­rid­ing in­terests.

²Any per­son who shows a cred­ible in­terest may re­quest the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity to provide in­form­a­tion on the ex­ist­ence and the ef­fects of an adult pro­tec­tion meas­ure.

¹An adult pro­tec­tion meas­ure may be cited in op­pos­i­tion to third parties even if they are act­ing in good faith.

²If the deputy­ship lim­its the ca­pa­city of the cli­ent to act, debt­ors must be no­ti­fied that con­trac­tu­al per­form­ance only re­lieves them of their ob­lig­a­tions pay­ment if it is made to the deputy. Pri­or to no­tice be­ing giv­en, the deputy­ship may not be cited in op­pos­i­tion to debt­ors act­ing in good faith.

³If a per­son sub­ject to an adult pro­tec­tion meas­ure in­duces oth­er per­sons to ac­cept his or her ca­pa­city to act in er­ror, he or she is li­able to them for any dam­age caused thereby.

¹If there is a ser­i­ous risk that a per­son in need will en­danger him­self or her­self or com­mit a felony or mis­de­mean­our that ser­i­ously dam­ages an­oth­er per­son phys­ic­ally or men­tally or causes them ma­ter­i­al loss, the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall co­oper­ate with the agen­cies con­cerned and the po­lice.

²In such cases, per­sons sub­ject to of­fi­cial or pro­fes­sion­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity are en­titled to no­ti­fy the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity.

¹Any per­son who is in­jured by an un­law­ful act or omis­sion re­lated to of­fi­cial adult pro­tec­tion meas­ures has the right to dam­ages and, if jus­ti­fied by the ser­i­ous­ness of the in­jury, to sat­is­fac­tion.

²The same right ap­plies if the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity or the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity be­haves un­law­fully in re­la­tion to oth­er adult pro­tec­tion mat­ters.

³The can­ton is li­able; the per­son suf­fer­ing dam­age has no right to dam­ages against the per­son who caused the dam­age.

⁴The can­ton's right of re­course against the per­son that caused the dam­age is gov­erned by the can­ton­al law.

¹The right to claim dam­ages or sat­is­fac­tion pre­scribes in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of the Code of Ob­lig­a­tions¹ on the law of tort.²

²If the per­son who caused the dam­age com­mit­ted a crim­in­al of­fence through his or her con­duct, the right to claim dam­ages or sat­is­fac­tion pre­scribes at the earli­est when the right to pro­sec­ute the of­fence pre­scribes. If the right to pro­sec­ute is no longer li­able to pre­scrip­tion be­cause a first in­stance crim­in­al judg­ment has been is­sued, the right to claim dam­ages or sat­is­fac­tion pre­scribes at the earli­est three years after no­tice of the judg­ment is giv­en.³

³If the in­jury is re­lated to the or­der­ing or con­duct of a long-term meas­ure, the pre­script­ive peri­od for a claim against the can­ton does not be­gin be­fore the long-term meas­ure ends or is con­tin­ued by an­oth­er can­ton.

C. Li­ab­il­ity un­der agency law

The li­ab­il­ity of a per­son en­trus­ted with an­oth­er's care as well as that of a spouse or re­gistered part­ner of a per­son lack­ing ca­pa­city of judge­ment or of a rep­res­ent­at­ive in the case of med­ic­al meas­ures, in­so­far as that per­son is not a wel­fare deputy is gov­erned by the pro­vi­sions of the Code of Ob­lig­a­tions¹ on agency.

¹The nearest heirs of a de­ceased per­son are his or her is­sue.

²Chil­dren in­her­it in equal parts.

³Pre­de­ceased chil­dren are re­placed by their own is­sue in all de­grees per stirpes.

¹Where the de­ceased is not sur­vived by any is­sue, the es­tate passes to the par­ent­al line.

²The fath­er and moth­er each in­her­it one-half of the es­tate.

³A pre­de­ceased par­ent is re­placed by his or her is­sue in all de­grees per stirpes.

⁴Where there are no is­sue on one side, the en­tire es­tate passes to the heirs on the oth­er.

¹Where the de­ceased is sur­vived by neither is­sue nor heirs in the par­ent­al line, the es­tate passes to the line of the grand­par­ents.

²Where the grand­par­ents of the pa­ternal and ma­ter­nal lines sur­vive the de­ceased, they in­her­it in equal parts on both sides.

³A pre­de­ceased grand­par­ent is re­placed by his or her is­sue in all de­grees per stirpes.

⁴If a grand­par­ent on the pa­ternal or ma­ter­nal side has pre­de­ceased without is­sue, that en­tire half of the es­tate is in­her­ited by the heirs on that side.

⁵If there are no heirs in either the pa­ternal or the ma­ter­nal side, the en­tire es­tate passes to the heirs in the oth­er side.

The suc­ces­sion rights of re­l­at­ives end with the line of the grand­par­ents.

Sur­viv­ing spouses and re­gistered part­ners re­ceive:

1.

one-half of the es­tate, where they are ob­liged to share with the de­ceased’s is­sue;

2.

three-quar­ters of the es­tate, where they are ob­liged to share with heirs in the par­ent­al line;

3.

the en­tire es­tate, where no heirs ex­ist in the par­ent­al line either.

Where the de­ceased leaves no heirs, his or her es­tate passes to the can­ton in which he or she was last res­id­ent or to the com­mune des­ig­nated by the law of that can­ton.

Any per­son who has the ca­pa­city of judge­ment and is at least 18 years old has the right to draw up a will dis­pos­ing of his or her prop­erty in ac­cord­ance with the lim­its and forms pre­scribed by law.

¹Any per­son who is cap­able of judge­ment and has reached the age of 18 may con­clude a con­tract of suc­ces­sion as a test­at­or.

²Per­sons sub­ject to a deputy­ship that cov­ers the con­clu­sion of a con­tract of suc­ces­sion re­quire the con­sent of their leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive.

¹Dis­pos­i­tions made in er­ror or un­der the in­flu­ence of ma­li­cious de­cep­tion, threats or co­er­cion are void.

²However, they be­come val­id if not re­voked by the test­at­or with­in one year of his or her dis­cov­er­ing the er­ror or de­cep­tion or of his or her re­lease from the threat or co­er­cion.

³If a dis­pos­i­tion con­tains an ob­vi­ous er­ror with re­gard to per­sons or ob­jects and the test­at­or’s true in­ten­tion may be es­tab­lished with cer­tainty, the dis­pos­i­tion shall be rec­ti­fied ac­cord­ingly.

¹A per­son who is sur­vived by is­sue, par­ents, a spouse or a re­gistered part­ner may make a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion of that part of his or her prop­erty which ex­ceeds the stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment of the sur­viv­or or sur­viv­ors.¹

²A per­son who is not sur­vived by any such heirs may dis­pose of his or her en­tire prop­erty by test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion.

The stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment is:

1.

for any is­sue, three-quar­ters of their stat­utory suc­ces­sion rights;

2.

for each par­ent, one-half;

3.²

for the sur­viv­ing spouse or re­gistered part­ner, one-half.

¹By a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion, the test­at­or may grant the sur­viv­ing spouse a usu­fruct of the en­tire part of the es­tate passing to their com­mon is­sue.¹

²This usu­fruct shall re­place the stat­utory suc­ces­sion right due to the spouse where the com­mon is­sue are co-heirs with the spouse. In ad­di­tion to this usu­fruct, the dis­pos­able part is one-quarter of the es­tate.²

³If the sur­viv­ing spouse re­mar­ries, the usu­fruct ceases to ap­ply to that part of the es­tate which, on suc­ces­sion, could not have been en­cumbered by a usu­fruct un­der the pro­vi­sions or­din­ar­ily gov­ern­ing the stat­utory en­ti­tle­ments of the de­ceased’s is­sue.³

¹The dis­pos­able part is cal­cu­lated on the basis of the value of the de­ceased’s as­sets at the time of his or her death.

²In cal­cu­lat­ing this value, the de­ceased’s debts, the fu­ner­al ex­penses, the costs of seal­ing and of draw­ing up the in­vent­ory and the main­ten­ance claims of mem­bers of the house­hold for one month are de­duc­ted from value of the es­tate.

Inter vivos gifts are ad­ded to the es­tate in­so­far as they are sub­ject to an ac­tion in abate­ment.

Where a life as­sur­ance claim matur­ing on the death of the de­ceased was es­tab­lished in fa­vour of a third party by an inter vivos or test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion or mor­tis causa or was trans­ferred by the de­ceased dur­ing his or her life­time to a third party without valu­able con­sid­er­a­tion, the re­demp­tion value of such in­sur­ance claim at the time of death is ad­ded to the es­tate.

The test­at­or has the power to de­prive an heir of his or her stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment by means of a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion:

1.¹

if the heir has com­mit­ted a ser­i­ous crime against the test­at­or or a per­son close to him or her;

2.

if the heir has ser­i­ously breached his or her du­ties un­der fam­ily law to­wards the test­at­or or the lat­ter’s de­pend­ants.

¹The dis­in­her­ited per­son may neither par­ti­cip­ate in the es­tate nor bring an ac­tion in abate­ment.

²Un­less dis­posed of oth­er­wise by the test­at­or, the dis­in­her­ited per­son’s por­tion passes to the test­at­or’s stat­utory heirs as if the dis­in­her­ited per­son had pre­de­ceased.

³The dis­in­her­ited per­son’s is­sue re­tain their stat­utory en­ti­tle­ments as if he or she had pre­de­ceased.

¹A dis­in­her­it­ance is val­id only if the test­at­or in­dic­ates the reas­on for the dis­in­her­it­ance in his or her test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion.

²If the dis­in­her­ited per­son chal­lenges the dis­in­her­it­ance on the grounds that the reas­on there­for is in­cor­rect, any heir or leg­atee wish­ing to be­ne­fit from the dis­in­her­it­ance must prove that the reas­on is cor­rect.

³Where no such proof may be ad­duced or no reas­on for the dis­in­her­it­ance is in­dic­ated, the dis­pos­i­tion shall be up­held in­so­far as it does not de­prive the dis­in­her­ited per­son of his or her stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment un­less it was made by the test­at­or in ob­vi­ous er­ror re­gard­ing the reas­on for the dis­in­her­it­ance.

¹If un­paid debt cer­ti­fic­ates ex­ist in re­spect of any of the is­sue of the test­at­or, the lat­ter may de­prive the said is­sue of one-half of his or her stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment provid­ing he or she leaves that half to the ex­ist­ing or sub­sequently born chil­dren of the said is­sue.

²At the dis­in­her­ited per­son’s re­quest, the dis­in­her­it­ance is void if, on com­mence­ment of the suc­ces­sion pro­cess, the un­paid debt cer­ti­fic­ates no longer ex­ist against him or her or if their total amount does not ex­ceed one-quarter of his or her share of the es­tate.

¹With­in the lim­its of his or her right to dis­pose of his or her prop­erty, the test­at­or may dis­pose of it in part or in full by will or by con­tract of suc­ces­sion.

²Any prop­erty in re­spect of which no test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion has been made passes to the stat­utory heirs.

¹The test­at­or may at­tach bur­dens or con­di­tions to the dis­pos­i­tion, the ful­fil­ment of which may be re­ques­ted by any in­ter­ested party once the dis­pos­i­tion be­comes ef­fect­ive.

²Im­mor­al or un­law­ful bur­dens or con­di­tions render the dis­pos­i­tion null and void.

³Where they are merely oner­ous to third parties or mean­ing­less, they are deemed not to ex­ist.

⁴If an an­im­al re­ceives a be­quest by test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion, this dis­pos­i­tion is deemed to be a bur­den by which the an­im­al must be cared for ac­cord­ing to its needs.¹

¹The test­at­or may name one or more heirs to the en­tire es­tate or to a frac­tion there­of.

²Any dis­pos­i­tion by which a be­ne­fi­ciary should re­ceive all or a spe­cified frac­tion of the de­ceased’s es­tate is deemed to con­sti­tute the nam­ing of an heir.

¹The test­at­or may be­queath a leg­acy to a be­ne­fi­ciary without nam­ing that per­son as an heir.

² He or she may be­queath a spe­cif­ic leg­acy or the usu­fruct of the whole or a part of the es­tate, or he or she may in­struct the heirs or oth­er leg­atees to make pay­ments to that per­son from the value of the es­tate or to re­lease that per­son from ob­lig­a­tions.

³If the test­at­or be­queaths a spe­cif­ic leg­acy but the ob­ject is not part of the es­tate and no oth­er in­ten­tion is evid­ent from the dis­pos­i­tion, no ob­lig­a­tion is placed on the ob­lig­or of the leg­acy.

¹The ob­ject must be de­livered to the be­ne­fi­ciary in the same con­di­tion that it was in at the com­mence­ment of the suc­ces­sion pro­cess, in­clud­ing dam­age and growth and with or without en­cum­brance.

²With re­gard to ex­pendit­ure on and de­teri­or­a­tion of the leg­acy since the com­mence­ment of the suc­ces­sion pro­cess, the ob­lig­or of the leg­acy has the same rights and du­ties as an agent without au­thor­ity.

¹Where the legacies ex­ceed the value of the es­tate or of the be­quest to the ob­lig­or or of the dis­pos­able part, ap­plic­a­tion may be made to have them abated pro­por­tion­ately.

²If the ob­lig­ors do not sur­vive the test­at­or, are un­worthy to in­her­it or dis­claim their in­her­it­ance, the legacies re­main non­ethe­less ef­fect­ive.

³If the test­at­or has be­queathed a leg­acy to a stat­utory or named heir, the lat­ter has the right to claim the leg­acy even if he or she dis­claims his or her in­her­it­ance.

In his or her dis­pos­i­tion, the test­at­or may des­ig­nate one or more per­sons to whom the es­tate or leg­acy shall pass in the event that the ini­tial heir or leg­atee is pre­de­ceased or dis­claims it.

¹The test­at­or is en­titled in his or her dis­pos­i­tions to re­quire the named heir, as pro­vi­sion­al heir, to de­liv­er the es­tate to a third party, as re­main­der­man.

²No such ob­lig­a­tion may be im­posed on the re­main­der­man.

³The same pro­vi­sions ap­ply to legacies.

¹Ex­cept where the dis­pos­i­tion stip­u­lates oth­er­wise, the time of de­liv­ery is deemed to be the death of the pro­vi­sion­al heir.

²Where a dif­fer­ent time is spe­cified and that time has not yet oc­curred on the death of the pro­vi­sion­al heir, the in­her­it­ance passes to his or her heirs against se­cur­ity.

³If for whatever reas­on that time may no longer oc­cur, the in­her­it­ance passes un­re­servedly to the heirs of the pro­vi­sion­al heir.

¹In all cases in which re­main­der­men are des­ig­nated, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity must or­der an in­vent­ory to be drawn up.

²De­liv­ery of the in­her­it­ance to the pro­vi­sion­al heir is made only against se­cur­ity, ex­cept where the test­at­or has ex­pressly re­leased him or her from such an ob­lig­a­tion; in the case of im­mov­able prop­erty, se­cur­ity may be provided by en­ter­ing the de­liv­ery ob­lig­a­tion un­der pri­or­ity no­tice in the land re­gister.

³If the pro­vi­sion­al heir is un­able to provide se­cur­ity or jeop­ard­ises the re­main­der­man’s ex­pect­ancy, the in­her­it­ance must be placed un­der pro­bate ad­min­is­tra­tion.

¹A pro­vi­sion­al heir ac­quires the in­her­it­ance in the same man­ner as any named heir.

² He or she be­comes the own­er of the in­her­it­ance with an ob­lig­a­tion to de­liv­er it.

¹The re­main­der­man ac­quires the test­at­or’s be­quest if he or she is alive at the stip­u­lated de­liv­ery time.

²If he or she dies be­fore then, the in­her­it­ance passes to the pro­vi­sion­al heir un­less the test­at­or has ordered oth­er­wise.

³If the pro­vi­sion­al heir dies be­fore the test­at­or or is un­worthy of in­her­it­ance or dis­claims the in­her­it­ance, it passes to the re­main­der­man.

¹If any is­sue per­man­ently lacks ca­pa­city of judge­ment and if he or she is not sur­vived by is­sue or a spouse, the test­at­or may des­ig­nate a re­main­der­man in re­spect of the residue.

²The des­ig­na­tion of the re­main­der­man ceases to ap­ply by law if the is­sue, con­trary to ex­pect­a­tion, be­comes cap­able of judge­ment.

¹The test­at­or is en­titled to be­queath all or part of the dis­pos­able por­tion of his or her prop­erty to a found­a­tion for any pur­pose of his or her choos­ing.

²However, the found­a­tion is val­id only if it con­forms to the leg­al re­quire­ments.

¹The test­at­or may, by con­tract of suc­ces­sion, un­der­take to an­oth­er per­son to be­queath his or her es­tate or a leg­acy to that per­son or a third party.

² He or she is free to dis­pose of his or her prop­erty as he or she sees fit.

³However, test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tions or gifts that are in­com­pat­ible with ob­lig­a­tions entered in­to un­der the con­tract of suc­ces­sion are sub­ject to chal­lenge.

¹The test­at­or may con­clude an in­her­it­ance re­nun­ci­ation con­tract with an heir with or without valu­able con­sid­er­a­tion.

²The re­noun­cing party is not deemed to be an heir on suc­ces­sion.

³Un­less the con­tract provides oth­er­wise, the re­nun­ci­ation of an in­her­it­ance also ap­plies to the is­sue of the re­noun­cing party.

¹Where cer­tain per­sons are named in the re­nun­ci­ation con­tact as heirs in lieu of the re­noun­cing party, the re­nun­ci­ation is void if such per­sons fail to ac­quire the in­her­it­ance for whatever reas­on.

²Where an in­her­it­ance is re­nounced in fa­vour of co-heirs, the re­nun­ci­ation is pre­sumed to be ef­fect­ive only in re­spect of the heirs of the line des­cend­ing from their nearest com­mon as­cend­ant and has no ef­fect with re­gard to more dis­tant heirs.

If the de­ceased was in­solv­ent on com­mence­ment of the suc­ces­sion pro­cess and his or her cred­it­ors are not sat­is­fied by the heirs, the re­noun­cing party and his or her heirs may be held li­able to the ex­tent that they re­ceived valu­able con­sid­er­a­tion for the re­nounced in­her­it­ance with­in the five years pri­or to the death of the de­ceased and were still en­riched by such con­sid­er­a­tion on suc­ces­sion.

The test­at­or may make his or her will in the form of a pub­lic deed or in holo­graph­ic or or­al form.

A will by pub­lic deed is made in the pres­ence of two wit­nesses by a pub­lic of­fi­cial, not­ary pub­lic or oth­er per­son au­thor­ised un­der can­ton­al law to con­duct such busi­ness.

¹The test­at­or must in­form the of­fi­cial of his or her wishes, whereupon the of­fi­cial draws up the deed or causes it to be drawn up and gives it to the test­at­or to read.

²The deed must be signed by the test­at­or.

³The of­fi­cial must date and sign the deed.

¹As soon as the pub­lic deed has been signed and dated, the test­at­or must de­clare to the two wit­nesses, in the pres­ence of the of­fi­cial, that he or she has read the doc­u­ment and that it con­tains his or her will.

²The wit­nesses must sign the deed and in so do­ing con­firm that the test­at­or made said de­clar­a­tion in their pres­ence and that, in their judg­ment, in so do­ing he or she was in full pos­ses­sion of test­a­ment­ary ca­pa­city.

³It is not ne­ces­sary for the wit­nesses to be in­formed of the con­tent of the deed.

¹If the test­at­or does not read and sign the deed, the of­fi­cial must read it out in the pres­ence of the two wit­nesses and the test­at­or, who must then de­clare that the deed con­tains his or her will.

²In this case the wit­nesses must not only at­test to the test­at­or’s de­clar­a­tion and their judg­ment con­cern­ing his or her test­a­ment­ary ca­pa­city but must also con­firm, by ap­pend­ing their sig­na­tures, that the deed was read out to the test­at­or by the of­fi­cial in their pres­ence.

¹Per­sons who lack ca­pa­city to act, have been de­prived of their civil rights due to a crim­in­al con­vic­tion¹ or are un­able to read or write, lin­eal re­l­at­ives² or sib­lings of the test­at­or or their spouses and the test­at­or’s spouse are not per­mit­ted to act as au­then­tic­at­ing of­fi­cials or wit­nesses when mak­ing a will in the form of a pub­lic deed.

²No dis­pos­i­tion may be made in the will in fa­vour of any au­then­tic­at­ing of­ficer or wit­ness or his or her lin­eal re­l­at­ives, sib­lings or spouse.

The can­tons must en­sure that pub­lic of­fi­cials en­trus­ted with wills either keep the ori­gin­al or a copy of such deeds them­selves or else for­ward them to an au­thor­ity for safe­keep­ing.

¹A holo­graph­ic will must be writ­ten in the test­at­or’s own hand from start to fin­ish, in­clude an in­dic­a­tion of the day, month and year on which it is drawn up, and be signed by the test­at­or.¹

²The can­tons must en­sure that such wills can be for­war­ded, wheth­er open or sealed, to an au­thor­ity for safe­keep­ing.

¹Where the test­at­or is pre­ven­ted from us­ing any oth­er form of will by ex­traordin­ary cir­cum­stances such as the im­min­ent risk of death, break­down in com­mu­nic­a­tions, epi­dem­ic or war, he or she is en­titled to make a will in or­al form.

²To do so, he or she must de­clare his or her will in the pres­ence of two wit­nesses and in­struct them to have it drawn up as re­quired in the form of a deed.

³The wit­nesses are sub­ject to the same dis­qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­vi­sions as ap­ply to wills made in the form of pub­lic deeds.

¹The or­al will, in­clud­ing the place, day, month and year, must be writ­ten down im­me­di­ately by one of the wit­nesses, then signed by both and lodged without delay with a ju­di­cial au­thor­ity to­geth­er with a de­clar­a­tion that the test­at­or was in full pos­ses­sion of his or her test­a­ment­ary ca­pa­city and that he or she in­formed them of his or her will in the spe­cial cir­cum­stances pre­vail­ing at that time.

²The two wit­nesses may in­stead have the will re­cor­ded by a ju­di­cial au­thor­ity along with the same de­clar­a­tion.

³If the test­at­or makes his or her or­al will while on mil­it­ary ser­vice, an of­ficer with the rank of cap­tain or high­er may take the place of the ju­di­cial au­thor­ity.

If the test­at­or sub­sequently has the op­por­tun­ity to draw up his or her will in an­oth­er form, the or­al will ceases to be val­id 14 days after such op­por­tun­ity arises.

¹The test­at­or may re­voke his or her will at any time in one of the forms en­vis­aged for draw­ing it up.

²Such re­voc­a­tion may ap­ply to all or part of the will.

¹The test­at­or may re­voke his or her will by des­troy­ing the deed.

²If the deed is des­troyed by oth­ers wil­fully or by ac­ci­dent, the will like­wise be­comes void inas­much as its con­tent may no longer be as­cer­tained pre­cisely and com­pletely; claims for dam­ages are re­served.

¹If the test­at­or makes a will without ex­pressly re­vok­ing a pre­vi­ous will, the later will su­per­sedes the earli­er un­less it is mani­festly no more than a co­di­cil thereto.

²Like­wise, a be­quest of a spe­cif­ic ob­ject is re­voked if the test­at­or sub­sequently makes a new dis­pos­i­tion of the same ob­ject that is in­com­pat­ible with the pre­vi­ous dis­pos­i­tion.

¹In or­der to be val­id, a con­tract of suc­ces­sion must meet the same form­al re­quire­ments as a will ex­ecuted as a pub­lic deed.

²The con­tract­ing parties must sim­ul­tan­eously de­clare their in­ten­tions to the pub­lic of­fi­cial and sign the deed be­fore him or her and two wit­nesses.

¹The con­tract of suc­ces­sion may be re­voked at any time by writ­ten agree­ment between the parties.

²The test­at­or may uni­lat­er­ally re­voke the nam­ing of an heir or a leg­acy provided the heir or leg­atee is guilty of con­duct con­sti­tut­ing grounds for dis­in­her­it­ance after the con­tract was con­cluded.

³The uni­lat­er­al re­voc­a­tion must be done in one of the forms pre­scribed for draw­ing up wills.

A per­son en­titled to be­ne­fits inter vivos un­der a con­tract of suc­ces­sion may de­clare his or her with­draw­al from the con­tract in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of the Code of Ob­lig­a­tions¹ in the event of fail­ure to per­form such be­ne­fits or to fur­nish se­cur­ity for them.

¹Where the heir or leg­atee does not sur­vive the test­at­or, the con­tract be­comes void.

²Where at the time of the heir’s death the test­at­or has been en­riched as a res­ult of the con­tract of suc­ces­sion, un­less oth­er­wise provided, the heirs of the de­ceased may de­mand resti­tu­tion of the amount in­volved.

If a test­at­or be­comes sub­ject to a re­stric­tion of test­a­ment­ary free­dom after he or she has made a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion, the dis­pos­i­tion is not an­nulled but is sub­ject to ac­tion in abate­ment.

¹In the will, the test­at­or may ap­point one or more per­sons with ca­pa­city to act to ex­ecute the will.

²The pro­bate au­thor­ity shall no­ti­fy these per­sons of the ap­point­ment ex of­fi­cio and they must state wheth­er they ac­cept it with­in 14 days of such no­ti­fic­a­tion, si­lence be­ing deemed ta­cit ac­cept­ance.

³They are en­titled to ad­equate re­com­pense for their activ­it­ies.

¹Un­less oth­er­wise provided by the test­at­or, the ex­ecut­ors have the same rights and du­ties as an of­fi­cial es­tate ad­min­is­trat­or.

²The ex­ecut­ors’ func­tion is to rep­res­ent the test­at­or’s wishes and, in par­tic­u­lar, to ad­min­is­ter the es­tate, settle debts left by the test­at­or, dis­trib­ute legacies and di­vide the es­tate in ac­cord­ance with the test­at­or’s in­struc­tions or as re­quired by law.

³Where more than one ex­ecut­or has been ap­poin­ted, these powers are ex­er­cised jointly, un­less the test­at­or has provided oth­er­wise.

¹Where con­tested, a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion may be de­clared in­val­id:

1.

if it was made by the test­at­or at a time when he or she lacked test­a­ment­ary ca­pa­city;

2.

if it is the product of a lack of free will;

3.

if its con­tent or a con­di­tion at­tached to it is im­mor­al or un­law­ful.

²An ac­tion of de­clar­a­tion of in­valid­ity may be brought by any in­ter­ested heir or leg­atee.

¹If the test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion is form­ally de­fect­ive, it is de­clared in­val­id on be­ing con­tested be­fore a court.

²If the form­al de­fect con­sists in the cer­tain per­sons be­ing party to the ex­e­cu­tion of the dis­pos­i­tion who or whose fam­ily mem­bers are be­ne­fi­ciar­ies un­der the test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion, only the clauses re­lat­ing to those be­ne­fi­ciar­ies shall be de­clared in­val­id.

³The right of ac­tion is gov­erned by the same pro­vi­sions as ap­ply in the event of a lack of test­a­ment­ary ca­pa­city.

If the form­al de­fect in a holo­graph­ic will con­sists in the day, month or year not be­ing in­dic­ated cor­rectly or at all, the will may be de­clared in­val­id only if the pre­cise date can­not be as­cer­tained in some oth­er man­ner and is ne­ces­sary in or­der to de­term­ine the test­at­or’s test­a­ment­ary ca­pa­city, the chro­no­lo­gic­al or­der of mul­tiple wills or any oth­er is­sue af­fect­ing the valid­ity of the will.

¹The right to bring an ac­tion of de­clar­a­tion of in­valid­ity pre­scribes one year after the con­test­ing party learned of the will and the ground for nullity and in any event a max­im­um of ten years after the com­mence­ment of pro­bate pro­ceed­ings.

²In all cases, the right to bring an ac­tion on grounds of lack of test­a­ment­ary ca­pa­city, im­mor­al­ity or un­law­ful­ness against a be­ne­fi­ciary act­ing in bad faith does not pre­scribe un­til 30 years have elapsed.

³In­valid­ity may be in­voked as a de­fence at any time.

¹Where the test­at­or has ex­ceeded his or her test­a­ment­ary free­dom, those heirs who do not re­ceive the full value of their stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment may sue to have the dis­pos­i­tion abated to the per­mit­ted amount.

²Clauses con­tained in test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tions re­lat­ing to the en­ti­tle­ments of the stat­utory heirs are deemed merely to be in­struc­tions for di­vid­ing the es­tate un­less it is evid­ent from the dis­pos­i­tion that the test­at­or in­ten­ded oth­er­wise.

Where a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion con­tains legacies in fa­vour of sev­er­al heirs with a stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment and the test­at­or has ex­ceeded his or her test­a­ment­ary free­dom, such legacies shall be abated among the co-heirs in pro­por­tion to the amounts by which they ex­ceed each co-heir’s stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment.

¹Where the test­at­or has ex­ceeded his or her test­a­ment­ary free­dom to the det­ri­ment of an heir and the lat­ter fails to bring a ac­tion in abate­ment des­pite be­ing in­struc­ted to do so by the bank­ruptcy ad­min­is­trat­ors or by cred­it­ors hold­ing un­paid debt cer­ti­fic­ates on suc­ces­sion, the ad­min­is­trat­ors or cred­it­ors them­selves may bring an ac­tion in abate­ment for the amount ne­ces­sary to cov­er their claims with­in the same time lim­it that ap­plies to the heir.

²The same right ap­plies in the case of a dis­in­her­it­ance not con­tested by the per­son dis­in­her­ited.

¹Abate­ment is ap­plied in equal pro­por­tion in re­spect of all named heirs and leg­atees un­less it is evid­ent from the dis­pos­i­tion that the test­at­or in­ten­ded oth­er­wise.

²Where the abate­ment ap­plies to a leg­acy whose be­ne­fi­ciary is also the ob­lig­or of oth­er legacies, sub­ject to the same pro­viso such be­ne­fi­ciary may re­quest that those oth­er legacies be abated pro­por­tion­ately.

Where a spe­cif­ic leg­acy that can­not be di­vided without loss of value is to be abated, the leg­atee may either claim it and pay the bal­ance or claim the dis­pos­able amount in lieu of the ob­ject.

The fol­low­ing are sub­ject to abate­ment in the same man­ner as test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tions:

1.

ad­vances against a per­son’s share of an in­her­it­ance made in the form of wed­ding gifts, set­tle­ments or as­sign­ments of as­sets, to the ex­tent these are not sub­ject to hotch­pot;

2.

com­pens­a­tion pay­ments in set­tle­ment of fu­ture rights of in­her­it­ance;

3.

gifts that were freely re­voc­able by the de­ceased or made in the five years pri­or to his or her death, with the ex­cep­tion of cus­tom­ary oc­ca­sion­al gifts;

4.

as­sets ali­en­ated by the de­ceased with the ob­vi­ous in­ten­tion of cir­cum­vent­ing the lim­it­a­tions on his or her test­a­ment­ary free­dom.

¹A per­son act­ing in good faith has a duty of resti­tu­tion only to the ex­tent that he or she is still en­riched by such trans­ac­tions with the de­ceased at the time of suc­ces­sion.

²Where be­ne­fits con­ferred un­der a con­tract of suc­ces­sion are sub­ject to abate­ment, the be­ne­fi­ciary is en­titled to re­claim a pro­por­tion­ate amount of the counter-per­form­ance made to the test­at­or.

Where a life as­sur­ance claim matur­ing on the death of the de­ceased was es­tab­lished in fa­vour of a third party by a dis­pos­i­tion inter vivos or by a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion or was trans­ferred by the de­ceased dur­ing his or her life­time to a third party without valu­able con­sid­er­a­tion, such claim is sub­ject to abate­ment at its re­demp­tion value.

If the test­at­or has en­cumbered the es­tate with rights of usu­fruct and an­nu­it­ies such that their cap­it­al­ised value over their prob­able dur­a­tion ex­ceeds the dis­pos­able part of the es­tate, the heirs are en­titled either to seek pro­por­tion­ate abate­ment of such rights or to re­deem them by sur­ren­der­ing the dis­pos­able part of the es­tate to the be­ne­fi­ciar­ies.

The nam­ing of a re­main­der­man in re­spect of an heir en­titled to a stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment is in­val­id as to that part of the es­tate; the pro­vi­sion on is­sue who are in­cap­able of judge­ment is re­served.

Abate­ment ap­plies first to test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tions and there­after to dis­pos­i­tions inter vivos in re­verse chro­no­lo­gic­al or­der un­til the stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment has been re­con­sti­t­uted.

¹A claim in abate­ment pre­scribes one year after the date on which the heirs learned of the in­fringe­ment of their rights and in any event after ten years have elapsed since the suc­ces­sion, in the case of test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion, or since the test­at­or’s death, in the case of oth­er dis­pos­i­tions.

²If the de­clar­a­tion of the in­valid­ity of a later dis­pos­i­tion re­vives an earli­er one, the pre­script­ive peri­ods be­gin on the date on which in­valid­ity was de­clared.

³The en­ti­tle­ment to abate­ment may be in­voked as a de­fence at any time.

¹If the test­at­or trans­fers his or her prop­erty dur­ing his or her life­time to the con­trac­tu­al heir, the lat­ter may ar­range for a pub­lic in­vent­ory to be taken.

²Where the test­at­or has not trans­ferred all his or her prop­erty or has ac­quired prop­erty since the trans­fer, ex­cept where oth­er­wise provided the con­tract ap­plies only to the prop­erty trans­ferred.

³Where such trans­fer takes place dur­ing the test­at­or’s life­time, ex­cept where oth­er­wise provided all rights and ob­lig­a­tions arising from the con­tract pass to the heirs of the named heir.

¹If the test­at­or dur­ing his or her life­time con­ferred be­ne­fits on a re­noun­cing heir that ex­ceed that heir’s share of the es­tate, his or her co-heirs may re­quest abate­ment.

²However, such be­ne­fits are sub­ject to abate­ment only to the ex­tent they ex­ceed the stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment of the re­noun­cing heir.

³Al­low­ance is made for them ac­cord­ing to the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing hotch­pot.

If as a res­ult of abate­ment a re­noun­cing heir is ob­liged to re­im­burse the es­tate, he or she has the choice of either tak­ing the re­im­burse­ment upon him­self or of pla­cing the en­tire be­ne­fit in­to hotch­pot and par­ti­cip­at­ing in the di­vi­sion as if he or she had nev­er re­nounced.

¹Suc­ces­sion com­mences on the death of the de­ceased.

²In­so­far as dis­pos­i­tions and di­vi­sions made dur­ing de­ceased's life­time are rel­ev­ant un­der law of suc­ces­sion, they are taken in­to ac­count ac­cord­ing to the con­di­tion of the es­tate as at the time of his or her death.

¹The suc­ces­sion pro­cess com­mences in re­spect of the en­tire es­tate at the de­ceased’s last dom­i­cile.

²...²

¹Every per­son is cap­able of be­ing an heir and ac­quir­ing prop­erty by test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion un­less by law he or she is deemed in­cap­able of in­her­it­ance.

²Be­quests with a des­ig­nated pur­pose to groups of per­sons not con­sti­tut­ing a leg­al en­tity are ac­quired by all such per­sons in­di­vidu­ally with an ob­lig­a­tion to use them as pre­scribed or, where this is not prac­tic­al, give rise to a trust.

¹A per­son is un­worthy of in­her­it­ing or ac­quir­ing any­thing by a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion if:

1.

he or she wil­fully and un­law­fully caused or at­temp­ted to cause the death of the per­son now de­ceased;

2.

he or she wil­fully and un­law­fully rendered the per­son now de­ceased per­man­ently in­cap­able of mak­ing a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion;

3.

by malice, co­er­cion or threat he or she in­duced the per­son now de­ceased to make or re­voke a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion or pre­ven­ted him or her from do­ing so;

4.

he or she wil­fully and un­law­fully elim­in­ated or in­val­id­ated a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion in such a man­ner as to pre­vent the per­son now de­ceased from draw­ing up a new one.

² Un­wor­thi­ness to in­her­it does not ap­ply if the per­son now de­ceased has for­giv­en the per­son con­cerned.

¹Un­wor­thi­ness to in­her­it ap­plies only to the per­son con­cerned.

²His or her is­sue in­her­it from the de­ceased as if the per­son un­worthy to in­her­it were pre­de­ceased.

¹In or­der to in­her­it, an heir must be alive and cap­able of in­her­it­ing at the time of suc­ces­sion.

²If an heir dies after com­mence­ment of suc­ces­sion, his or her rights of in­her­it­ance in re­spect of the es­tate pass to his or her own heirs.

¹A leg­atee sur­viv­ing the test­at­or and cap­able of in­her­it­ing ac­quires a claim to the leg­acy.

²If he or she dies be­fore the test­at­or, his or her leg­acy is ex­tin­guished in fa­vour of the per­son who would have been ob­liged to de­liv­er the leg­acy to him, un­less some oth­er in­ten­tion is evid­ent from the dis­pos­i­tion.

¹A child is cap­able of in­her­it­ing from the mo­ment of con­cep­tion on­wards, provid­ing he or she is sub­sequently born alive.

^1bisIf it is re­quired to pro­tect the child's in­terests, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall es­tab­lish a deputy­ship.¹

²If the child is still­born, it is dis­reg­arded for in­her­it­ance pur­poses.²

¹The test­at­or may be­queath his or her es­tate or part there­of to a per­son not yet liv­ing when suc­ces­sion com­mences by des­ig­nat­ing such per­son a re­main­der­man.

²Where no pro­vi­sion­al heir is named, the stat­utory heirs are deemed to be the pro­vi­sion­al heirs.

¹Where a per­son has been de­clared pre­sumed dead, be­fore his or her heirs or leg­atees suc­ceed to the es­tate, they must fur­nish se­cur­ity for the resti­tu­tion of the prop­erty to those with a pre­vail­ing claim or to the miss­ing per­son him­self.

²Such se­cur­ity shall be fur­nished for five years in the case of dis­ap­pear­ance in life-threat­en­ing cir­cum­stances and for 15 years in the case of ab­sence without sign of life, but nev­er bey­ond the date on which the miss­ing per­son would have be­come 100 years old.

³The five-year peri­od runs from the date on which the es­tate is trans­ferred and the 15-year peri­od from the last sign of life.

¹If the per­son who is pre­sumed dead re­turns or oth­er parties as­sert pre­vail­ing claims to the es­tate, those put in pos­ses­sion of the es­tate must re­turn it ac­cord­ing to the rules gov­ern­ing pos­ses­sion.

²Provided they ac­ted in good faith, they are li­able to parties with pre­vail­ing claims only dur­ing the peri­od in which ac­tion may be brought for re­clam­a­tion of the es­tate.

¹If it is im­possible to de­term­ine wheth­er an heir is alive or dead when suc­ces­sion com­mences be­cause he or she has dis­ap­peared, his or her share of the in­her­it­ance is placed un­der of­fi­cial ad­min­is­tra­tion.

²Those who would suc­ceed to the miss­ing heir’s share if he or she were dead may re­quest the court to de­clare the heir pre­sumed dead one year after his or her dis­ap­pear­ance in life-threat­en­ing cir­cum­stances or five years after the last sign of life and, once such de­clar­a­tion has been made, may ap­ply for re­lease of their shares of his or her in­her­it­ance.

³Such shares are re­leased ac­cord­ing to the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing re­lease to the heirs of per­sons pre­sumed dead.

¹If the heirs of the per­son pre­sumed dead are already in pos­ses­sion of his or her prop­erty and an in­her­it­ance passes to him or her, his or her co-heirs may in­voke this fact and re­quest that such in­her­it­ance be re­leased to them without need for a second de­clar­a­tion of pre­sumed death.

²The heirs of the per­son pre­sumed dead may like­wise in­voke a de­clar­a­tion of pre­sumed death ob­tained by the co-heirs.

IV. Pro­ced­ure ex of­fi­cio

¹Where the miss­ing per­son’s prop­erty or suc­ces­sion rights have been un­der of­fi­cial ad­min­is­tra­tion for ten years or more, or he or she would have reached the age of 100, at the re­quest of the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity the de­clar­a­tion of pre­sumed death is pro­nounced ex of­fi­cio.

²If no right­ful heirs come for­ward dur­ing the pub­lic no­tice peri­od, the prop­erty of the per­son pre­sumed dead passes to the state au­thor­ity with right to suc­ceed or, if he or she was nev­er res­id­ent in Switzer­land, to the can­ton of ori­gin.

³The loc­al au­thor­ity or can­ton con­cerned has the same duty of resti­tu­tion as those put in pos­ses­sion of the es­tate to­wards the per­son pre­sumed dead and parties with pre­vail­ing claims.

¹The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity must of its own ac­cord take all meas­ures ne­ces­sary to en­sure prop­er suc­ces­sion.¹

²In the cases en­vis­aged by law, in par­tic­u­lar, such meas­ures in­clude seal­ing the es­tate, draw­ing up the in­vent­ory, ap­point­ing the es­tate ad­min­is­trat­ors and read­ing out the wills of the de­ceased.

³...²

The or­der to seal the es­tate is giv­en whenev­er provided for by can­ton­al law.

¹The or­der to draw up an in­vent­ory is giv­en:

1.

where an heir is un­der guard­i­an­ship or is to be made a ward of court;

2.

where an heir is per­man­ently ab­sent and without rep­res­ent­a­tion;

3.

at the re­quest of one of the heirs;

4.

where an adult heir is or is to be made sub­ject to a gen­er­al deputy­ship.¹

²The in­vent­ory is drawn up in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of can­ton­al law and nor­mally must be com­pleted with­in two months of the death of the de­ceased.

³Can­ton­al le­gis­la­tion may re­quire that an in­vent­ory be drawn up in oth­er cases.

¹Es­tate ad­min­is­trat­ors are ap­poin­ted:

1.

where such an ap­point­ment is in the best in­terests of an heir who is per­man­ently ab­sent and without rep­res­ent­a­tion;

2.

where none of the claimants may ad­equately es­tab­lish his or her suc­ces­sion rights or the ex­ist­ence of an heir is un­cer­tain;

3.

where not all heirs are known;

4.

in spe­cial cases provided for by law.

²Where the de­ceased had named an ex­ecut­or, ad­min­is­tra­tion of the es­tate is en­trus­ted to him or her.

³Where the de­ceased was sub­ject to a deputy­ship that cov­ers as­set man­age­ment, the deputy is re­spons­ible for ad­min­is­ter­ing the es­tate un­less oth­er in­struc­tions ap­ply.¹

¹If the au­thor­ity is un­cer­tain as to wheth­er the de­ceased is sur­vived by heirs or wheth­er it is aware of all the heirs, the au­thor­ity must by ap­pro­pri­ate pub­lic means call on all per­sons with suc­ces­sion rights to come for­ward and claim them with­in one year.

²If no such per­son comes for­ward dur­ing this time and if no heirs are known to the au­thor­ity, the es­tate passes to the state au­thor­ity with right to suc­ceed, sub­ject to any ac­tion for re­cov­ery of in­her­it­ance.

¹If the de­ceased left a will, this must be sub­mit­ted to the au­thor­ity without delay even if it ap­pears to be in­val­id.

²The pub­lic of­fi­cial by whom the will was re­cor­ded or with whom it was de­pos­ited or any oth­er per­son who had cus­tody of the will or found it among the per­son­al ef­fects of the de­ceased is per­son­ally re­spons­ible on learn­ing of the test­at­or’s death for en­sur­ing that the will is sub­mit­ted to the au­thor­ity.

³Once the will has been sub­mit­ted, the au­thor­ity must, where feas­ible after hear­ing all in­ter­ested parties, either re­lease the es­tate to the stat­utory heirs on a pro­vi­sion­al basis or ap­point es­tate ad­min­is­trat­ors.

¹The test­at­or’s will must be opened and read out by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity with­in one month of its sub­mis­sion.

²All heirs known to the au­thor­ity are summoned to at­tend the read­ing.

³If the test­at­or left more than one will, all are to be sub­mit­ted to the au­thor­ity and opened and read out by it.

¹At the es­tate’s ex­pense, all in­ter­ested parties re­ceive a copy of the pro­vi­sions of the will as re­late to them.

²Leg­atees of un­known where­abouts are in­formed by ap­pro­pri­ate pub­lic no­tice.

¹One month after no­ti­fic­a­tion of the in­ter­ested parties, at the re­quest of the named heirs the pro­bate au­thor­ity is­sues such per­sons with a cer­ti­fic­ate con­firm­ing them as heirs, sub­ject to ac­tion of de­clar­a­tion of in­valid­ity and for re­cov­ery of in­her­it­ance, provid­ing their en­ti­tle­ment has not ex­pressly been chal­lenged by the stat­utory heirs or the leg­atees of an earli­er will.

²At the same time the es­tate ad­min­is­trat­or will be in­struc­ted, where ap­plic­able, to re­lease the es­tate in­to their pos­ses­sion.

¹On the death of the de­ceased, the es­tate in its en­tirety vests by op­er­a­tion of law in the heirs.

²Sub­ject to the stat­utory ex­cep­tions, the de­ceased’s claims, rights of own­er­ship, lim­ited rights in rem and rights of pos­ses­sion auto­mat­ic­ally pass to the heirs and the debts of the de­ceased be­come the per­son­al debts of the heirs.

³Vest­ing in the named heirs takes ef­fect ret­ro­act­ively from the date on which the suc­ces­sion pro­cess com­menced and the stat­utory heirs must re­lin­quish the es­tate to them ac­cord­ing to the rules gov­ern­ing pos­ses­sion.

¹The leg­atees have a per­son­al claim against the ob­lig­ors of their legacies or, where no-one is spe­cific­ally named as such, against the leg­al or named heirs.

²Un­less oth­er­wise provided by test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion, the claim be­comes due once the ob­lig­or has ac­cep­ted the in­her­it­ance or is no longer able to dis­claim it.

³If the heirs fail to ful­fil their ob­lig­a­tion, they may be sued for re­lease of the be­queathed prop­erty or, where the leg­acy per­tains to per­form­ance of some ac­tion, for dam­ages.

¹Where the be­quest to the leg­atee is a usu­fruct or an­nu­ity or oth­er re­cur­ring be­ne­fit, un­less oth­er­wise stip­u­lated, his or her claim is de­term­ined ac­cord­ing to the pro­vi­sions of prop­erty law and the Code of Ob­lig­a­tions.

²If the leg­acy is a life as­sur­ance claim matur­ing on the death of the test­at­or, the leg­atee is en­titled to as­sert that claim dir­ectly.

¹The claims of the test­at­or’s cred­it­ors pre­cede those of leg­atees.

²The claims of the heir’s cred­it­ors rank equally with those of the test­at­or’s cred­it­ors, provided the heir ac­quired the in­her­it­ance without re­ser­va­tion.

¹If, after the legacies have been dis­trib­uted, the heirs pay debts of the es­tate that were pre­vi­ously un­known to them, they are en­titled to re­im­burse­ment from the leg­atees of an amount cor­res­pond­ing to the pro­por­tion­ate abate­ment of such legacies that the heirs could have claimed.

²However, the leg­atees may be held li­able only in the amount by which they are en­riched at the time such re­im­burse­ment is de­man­ded.

¹The leg­al and named heirs are en­titled to dis­claim the in­her­it­ance passing to them.

²There is a pre­sump­tion of a dis­claim­er if at the time of his or her death the de­ceased had been of­fi­cially de­clared in­solv­ent or was mani­festly in­solv­ent.

¹The time lim­it for a dis­claim­er is three months.

²For stat­utory heirs, this lim­it be­gins on the date on which they learned of the death, un­less they can show that they did not learn of their suc­ces­sion rights un­til later, and for named heirs it be­gins on the date on which they re­ceived of­fi­cial no­ti­fic­a­tion of the test­at­or’s dis­pos­i­tion.

If an in­vent­ory has been drawn up as a pre­cau­tion­ary meas­ure, the dis­claim­er time lim­it for all heirs be­gins on the date on which the au­thor­ity no­ti­fied them that the in­vent­ory was com­plete.

¹If an heir dies be­fore dis­claim­ing or ac­cept­ing an in­her­it­ance, the right to dis­claim passes to his or her heirs.

²For such heirs, the dis­claim­er time lim­it be­gins on the date on which they learned that the in­her­it­ance passed to the de­ceased heir and ends no soon­er than the date on which the time lim­it for dis­claim­ing the in­her­it­ance from the de­ceased heir ex­pires.

³Where such heirs dis­claim the in­her­it­ance and it passes to oth­er heirs who pre­vi­ously had no suc­ces­sion rights, the dis­claim­er time lim­it for the lat­ter be­gins on the date on which they learned of the dis­claim­er.

¹An heir must de­clare his or her dis­claim­er or­ally or in writ­ing to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity.

²It must be un­con­di­tion­al and without re­ser­va­tion.

³The au­thor­ity keeps an of­fi­cial re­cord of dis­claim­ers.

¹If the heir fails to de­clare that he or she dis­claims the in­her­it­ance with­in the rel­ev­ant time lim­it, he or she ac­quires it without re­ser­va­tion.

²Where an heir has in­terfered in the af­fairs of the es­tate be­fore ex­piry of the dis­claim­er time lim­it or has ac­ted in a man­ner not con­du­cive to ad­min­is­ter­ing the es­tate or main­tain­ing the de­ceased’s busi­ness activ­it­ies, or where he or she has ap­pro­pri­ated or con­cealed ob­jects be­long­ing to the es­tate, he or she is no longer en­titled to dis­claim the in­her­it­ance.

¹Where the de­ceased has not made a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion and one of two or more heirs dis­claims the in­her­it­ance, his or her share of the es­tate passes to the oth­er heirs as if he or she had pre­de­ceased.

²Where the de­ceased has made test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion, any share of the es­tate dis­claimed by a named heir passes to the test­at­or’s nearest stat­utory heirs, un­less oth­er in­ten­tions on the part of the test­at­or are evid­ent from the dis­pos­i­tion.

¹Where the in­her­it­ance is dis­claimed by all the nearest heirs, the es­tate is li­quid­ated by the bank­ruptcy of­fice.

²If li­quid­a­tion pro­duces a sur­plus after pay­ment of debts, this passes to those en­titled to in­her­it as if they had not dis­claimed it.

If the de­ceased’s is­sue have dis­claimed the in­her­it­ance, the au­thor­ity no­ti­fies the dis­claim­er to the sur­viv­ing spouse, who is en­titled to de­clare ac­cept­ance with­in one month.

¹When dis­claim­ing the in­her­it­ance, the heirs may re­quest that it be offered to their sub­sequent heirs be­fore the es­tate is li­quid­ated.

²In this event, the au­thor­ity in­forms the sub­sequent heirs that the pre­ced­ing heirs have dis­claimed, and if the former fail to de­clare their ac­cept­ance of the in­her­it­ance with­in one month, they are like­wise deemed to have dis­claimed it.

Where there is good cause, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may grant the leg­al and named heirs an ex­ten­sion of the time lim­it or set a new one.

Where a leg­atee dis­claims a leg­acy, it be­comes void in fa­vour of the ob­lig­or, un­less oth­er in­ten­tions on the part of the test­at­or are evid­ent from his or her dis­pos­i­tion.

¹Where an over­indebted heir has dis­claimed an in­her­it­ance in or­der to with­hold it from his or her cred­it­ors, the lat­ter or the bank­ruptcy ad­min­is­trat­ors may chal­lenge the dis­claim­er with­in six months un­less their claims are se­cured.

²If their chal­lenge is up­held, the in­her­it­ance is placed in of­fi­cial li­quid­a­tion.

³Any sur­plus serves first to sat­is­fy the chal­len­ging cred­it­ors and any bal­ance re­main­ing after re­demp­tion of the oth­er debts passes to the heirs in whose fa­vour the dis­claim­er was made.

¹Where the de­ceased was in­solv­ent and his or her heirs dis­claim the in­her­it­ance, they re­main li­able to his or her cred­it­ors to the ex­tent that in the five years pri­or to his or her death they re­ceived prop­erty or as­sets from him or her which on di­vi­sion of the es­tate would have been sub­ject to hotch­pot.

²The en­dow­ment of newly-weds ac­cord­ing to loc­al cus­tom and the costs of rais­ing and edu­cat­ing chil­dren are not af­fected by such li­ab­il­ity.

³Heirs act­ing in good faith are li­able only to the ex­tent they are still en­riched.