Dowa Case Analysis | If the Father Dies, Can the Heir Recover Their Share of the Inheritance Transferred by the Stepmother?

Article 311 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China stipulates: "If a person without disposal rights transfers real property or movable property to a transferee, the owner of the property has the right to recover it; except as otherwise provided by law, if the transferee acquires the ownership of the real property or movable property under the following circumstances, the transferee shall acquire the ownership: (i) The transferee was acting in good faith when acquiring the real property or movable property; (ii) The transfer was made at a reasonable price; (iii) The real property or movable property transferred has been registered in accordance with the law where registration is required, or has been delivered to the transferee where registration is not required. If the transferee acquires the ownership of the real property or movable property in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph, the original owner has the right to claim damages from the person without disposal rights. If the parties acquire other property rights in good faith, the provisions of the preceding two paragraphs shall be applied by analogy." Article 597 provides: "If the seller has not obtained disposal rights, resulting in the inability to transfer the ownership of the subject matter, the buyer may terminate the contract and claim breach of contract damages from the seller."

Case Summary

After the death of Zhang's mother, her heritage (house) was not divided, and Zhang's father continued to reside there. Two years later, Zhang's father remarried and continued to live with his wife Zhao. Zhang, studying abroad, returned home upon hearing the news of his father's death, only to find that Zhao had transferred the house registered in Zhang's father's name to Qi.

Focus of Dispute

Can Zhang sue Zhao and Qi to recover the house originally belonging to his parents?

Dowah Analysis

The involved house is registered in Zhang's father's name and is originally the joint property of Zhang's parents. After the death of Zhang's mother, her spouse and children are all statutory first-degree heirs. However, since Zhang was still studying at the time and unmarried, he had no separate housing requirements and did not divide the heritage of Zhang's mother. Later, Zhang went abroad to study. After Zhang's father died, his remarried wife Zhao used the seal in her possession and Zhang's father's ID card that had not been returned to the public security authorities to sell the house registered in Zhang's father's name to Qi. According to the provisions of our Civil Code, after Zhang's father died, his first-degree heirs are his wife Zhao and his son Zhang. However, the involved house is not all of Zhang's father's heritage. The heritage inherited by Zhang's father and Zhang after the death of Zhang's mother should be separated out, that is, half of the entire house is the heritage of Zhang's mother, and the other half is Zhang's father's property. Half of the heritage of Zhang's mother is inherited by Zhang's father, and the other half belongs to Zhang. After Zhang's father died, the scope of his heritage is half of the entire house plus half of the heritage he inherited from Zhang's mother. Although Zhao married Zhang's father, the house was Zhang's father's pre-marital property, therefore belonging to Zhang's father's personal property, and Zhao was not a co-owner. After Zhang's father died, as his spouse, she had the right to inherit half of Zhang's father's heritage as a statutory first-degree heir. Zhao arbitrarily disposed of the entire house registered in Zhang's father's name, infringing on Zhang's property rights and inheritance rights. Zhang undoubtedly has the right to sue Zhao and Qi as defendants to recover the house that should have been inherited from his parents' heritage.

As to whether Zhang can ultimately recover the house through litigation from Qi, it depends on whether Qi was a good faith acquirer under Article 311 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China when purchasing the house registered in Zhang's father's name from Zhao, that is, whether the procedures for purchasing the house were complete and legal; whether the transfer of house ownership has been registered; whether consideration has been paid; and whether Qi was unaware that Zhang's father had already died at the time of Zhao's sale, making it impossible to issue a power of attorney, and Zhao did not have the full ownership of the involved house. If Qi is a good faith acquirer, in order to protect the safety of transactions, the People's Court will not order Qi to return the involved house to Zhang, and Zhang's only remedy is to request Zhao to return the price of the house he should have inherited and to claim compensation for the losses suffered due to the infringement of his property rights. If Qi is not a good faith acquirer or the house purchased has not been registered for property transfer, Zhang's lawsuit will be supported by the People's Court.