The KS indicated the possibility of increasing hereditary shares for heirs by will, but in some cases

The Constitutional Court noted, in particular, in particular that Article 1161 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation is interpreted as providing that when the heir to the will, according to which the entire inheritance is bequeathed to several heirs, died before the opening of the inheritance, the heir to the heir is inherited by the heir to the testator under the law if the heir was not led by the heir. In this situation, there is no increment of shares of the heir by testament due to the share of another heir who died before the opening of the inheritance.

In each case, it is necessary to find out the actual will of the testator. If it is impossible to clarify it, the court should proceed from the alleged will of the testator, which corresponds to the transition of the share of the heir to the heir by testament (according to which all hereditary property was bequeathed to several heirs with the distribution of shares) to the heirs of the testator according to the law.

The interpretation of the will as excluding the increment of the shares of the remaining heirs by will in the event of the death of one of them before the inheritance of the heir to the testator by law cannot be considered as the appropriate will of the testator in the absence of his obvious will about this. Consequently, the fall of one of the heirs by testament entails an increase in the shares of the rest of the heirs from the circle determined by the testator, if the will is clearly not prohibited by the increment of shares in this case.

In paragraph 1 of Article 1161 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation there is no special regulation of relations related to the determination of the legal fate of the share of the heir by testament, who died before the opening of the inheritance, if all property was distributed between the appointed heirs. This norm can be applied to this situation only in the general system of the norms of inheritance law so that the consequences of its application with the most probability correspond to the alleged will of the testator.

Thus, in the above interpretation of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, this norm corresponds to the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

Resolution of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of 03.27.2025 N 14-P “In the case of verification of constitutionality of paragraph 1 of Article 1161 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation in connection with the complaint of a citizen V.G. Grygazhina «

source: Consultant Plus