Gift from undivided estate is not set aside

A man who lived in an undivided estate, and who, after the death of his spouse, had cohabited with another, gave away a sum of money to the cohabitant's heirs. The gift corresponded to just over 20 percent of the value of the estate at the time of the gift. When assessing whether the gift was disproportionate to the assets in the estate, see section 19 of the Inheritance Act 1972 and section 23 of the Inheritance Act 2019, the Supreme Court found that a natural starting point would be a mathematical calculation of the ratio between the gift and the size of the estate at the time of the gift. In cases where the gift constituted from 10 to 30 percent of the assets ​​in the estate, an individual assessment would be decisive. Key to this assessment would be whether the gift arrangement appeared to be an abuse of the right to dispose of the undivided estate. In the individual assessment, emphasis was placed on the fact that the man's heirs had previously received significant gifts, and that the gift was part of arrangements that enabled the man to continue living in the former shared home after the death of his cohabitant. Overall, the Supreme Court concluded that the gift was not disproportionate to the assets ​​in the undivided estate. The appeal from the man's children against the Court of Appeal's judgment in favour of the cohabitant's children, was dismissed.

Read the whole judgment (Norwegian only)

Area of law: Inheritance law, undivided estate

Key paragraphs: 67, 72, 77, 80, 86

Justices: Bull, Bergsjø, Falch, Bergh, Sæther