Does the printed will have legal effect? How to be effective?

　　Chinanews.com client, Beijing, February 2nd. Recently, the sixth court of the Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court made a final judgment on a case involving a dispute over printing will.

This case was the first trial in which the court applied the new rules of the Civil Code regarding printing of wills after the "Civil Code" was formally implemented.

Data map: The registration site of the First Registration Center of China Will Bank.

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　　In this case, Mr. Han, as the youngest son in the family, had been accompanying and caring for his father when he was old and sick.

Before his death, Han's father made a will and designated the house under his name to be inherited by Mr. Han.

However, because the content of this will was printed by computer, the court of first instance found that it did not conform to the legal form of the will as stipulated in the "Inheritance Law of the People's Republic of China", and determined that the will is invalid, so the inheritance of the deceased was inherited in accordance with legal inheritance. Division among children.

Mr. Han received a 24% share. Mr. Han refused to accept it and appealed to the Second Intermediate Court.

　　After accepting the case, the Second Intermediate People's Court found that the will was printed out at the request of the deceased, and two uninterested witnesses were present when the deceased signed the will.

The full text of the will is only one page. Both the deceased and the two witnesses signed and stamped it, and the date was indicated at the place of inscription, which was supported by a video.

The collegial panel believed that the will submitted by Mr. Han complied with the provisions of Article 136 of the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China on printing a will and should be legal and valid.

As a result, the collegiate panel changed its judgment on the case, followed the contents of the printed will to deal with the estate, and ruled that the disputed house was inherited by Mr. Han.

　　Nowadays, more and more people are accustomed to using computer input instead of pen and paper in their daily lives, and printed wills are increasingly presented in court. So, what should be paid attention to when making a printed will?

　　The "Civil Code" clearly recognizes the form of printed wills, and specifies the form of printed wills.

Among them, Article 136 states: "The printed will shall be witnessed by two or more witnesses. The testator and the witness shall sign each page of the will, indicating the year, month, and day."

　　The judge reminded that when making a printed will, the following points should be noted:

　　First, there must be more than two witnesses present.

Although printing a will does not require that the computer production and printing must be completed by the testator himself, two or more witnesses should be present at the whole process, and the witness must not be a person who has an interest in the heir or legatee.

　　Second, the testator and witnesses should sign each page of the will and indicate the date of making the will.

Since the printed will cannot reflect the consistency of the written handwriting and is easy to be deleted and tampered with, it is specifically required that the testator and the witness should sign each page of the will and indicate the year, month and day. If only the signature or If the date is incomplete and there is no other evidence to support it, it should not be considered that the will meets the legal form requirements.

　　Can the "Civil Code" be applied to a printed will before 2021?

　　Article 15 of the "Several Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on the Application of the Time Validity of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China" clearly stipulates: "Before the implementation of the Civil Code, the testator made a printed will, and the parties disputed the validity of the will The provisions of Article 136 of the "Civil Code" shall apply, except for those where the inheritance has been processed before the implementation of the "Civil Code"."

　　In other words, no matter when the printed will is made, as long as the estate has not been processed, the new provisions of the Civil Code should be applied to review the validity of the printed will.

However, if the estate has been processed, it will not be changed because of the implementation of the Civil Code.

In this way, it not only demonstrates the system value of the Civil Code, but also does not violate the reasonable expectations of the parties based on the original laws.

(Finish)