Just reunited and then a dispute arose
With more than 20 years of experience in the profession, lawyer Dinh Thi Quynh Nhu (Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association, Director of An Luat LLC Law Firm) has had the opportunity to participate in and witness many cases. inheritance dispute.
Among them, the female lawyer was impressed and moved by the case of a dispute over common property left by Mr. Nguyen Van Nam’s grandparents and parents (60 years old, Ben Tre).
Lawyer Dinh Thi Quynh Nhu has participated in and witnessed many trials of inheritance disputes. Photo: Ha Nguyen
Mr. Nam’s family has 7 siblings. During the war, Mr. Nam’s older brother gathered in the North, while 6 others stayed in the South.
Peace, the 6 brothers had no news of their brother. The whole family thought he had passed away. However, they did not give up, determined to search with the goal of living to see the dead and see the body.
And then, they were lucky to reunite with their brother. At this time, Mr. Nam’s brother had already started a family in Hanoi.
Not long after reuniting, Mr. Nam’s 7 siblings fell into a “war” over the inheritance of the house and land left by their grandparents and parents.
When his parents were alive, Mr. Nam was a close and devoted son. Therefore, before passing away, his parents left the house and land to Mr. Nam to manage to worship their grandparents and ancestors. The remaining six people will share the gold coins worth nearly 1 billion VND.
However, both times Mr. Nam’s parents were dying, their children were not present. Therefore, his siblings suspected that Mr. Nam had forged an “oral will”. They only accepted the will as legally valid and demanded that the house and land be sold to be divided equally among all.
Meanwhile, Mr. Nam insisted on following his parents’ wishes, even if he died, he would keep the house and land and not share it with anyone.
Unable to find common ground, they constantly disagreed, and many times had to ask local authorities to intervene.
Unable to sit down and talk emotionally, the Nam brothers decided to take each other to court. The trials lasted more than 6 years.
During that time, the brothers cut off contact and refused to look at each other even though they were facing each other in court.
My brother died without knowing.
After more than 6 long years, the lawsuit of Mr. Nam and his brother finally entered the final appeal hearing. Meeting at the court, Mr. Nam saw his nephew attending instead of his brother. He went to ask and found out that his brother had passed away 2 years ago.
Because of a property dispute, they were angry with each other. Then, at the moment of greatest need, they were not there to fulfill the saying “a duty to the dead is a duty to the end”.
Only a few dozen minutes after the result of the match, they calmed down and sat down to visit each other. The more they asked, the more they discovered that not only had their brother passed away, but many other incidents had happened to their children and grandchildren.
“Seeing them asking each other questions, the judge paused the trial and gave the courtroom to them to sit together. At that time, I thought the law should step back to make room for family affection to speak,” said lawyer Quynh Nhu.
Engrossed in pursuing the lawsuit, the Nam brothers did not care about each other. Illustration photo: PX
After the loss and hurt, the brothers felt remorseful and each took a step back. The lawsuit that lasted more than 6 years ended in a peaceful reconciliation.
From the case, lawyer Quynh Nhu commented that a legal issue is always raised considering reason and emotion. Especially, with inheritance property disputes, the relationship between the parties is family, relatives, in addition to reason, the court, the parties involved must consider emotion.
“No matter who wins or loses, family ties are still damaged. So when solving cases inheritance disputethe mediation process is very important. It is an opportunity for the parties to sit down, negotiate, understand and look at legal issues from the perspective of family affection.
If reconciliation is not possible, when taking each other to court, no matter how close family members are, there is little chance of a peaceful return,” lawyer Quynh Nhu shared.
*Character names have been changed.