Background: A family’s will starts with equal shares
In 1989, a Vaudoise woman then 67 years old named her two children as heirs in equal parts, aiming to spare any sibling rivalries. The arrangement appeared straightforward: a balanced bequest that preserved harmony within the family.
Shifts in the will and a growing gap between siblings
Ten years later, for reasons that only later came to light, the mother revised her testament. The son became the sole heir, while a legacy of 210,000 Swiss francs was left to the daughter. A few months afterward, the mother’s estate was further altered when she signed a recognition of debt in favor of the son, for an amount of 500,000 francs. The changes set the stage for a long-running clash that would unfold over more than two decades.
Allegations of domination and the role of guardianship
The daughter did not accept the shift quietly. By 2010, she accused her brother of exercising undue influence over their mother, who had become isolated from family and relied on the brother to manage her affairs under a power of attorney. A provisional guardianship was installed, and the curator subsequently invalidated the debt acknowledgment. When the mother died in 2018 at 96, she had drafted one last document attempting to further favor the son, but it lacked the formal validation needed to be binding.
The legal marathon begins
In 2020, the sister launched legal proceedings seeking to annul her mother’s dispositions and to declare the brother unworthy of inheritance. The brother responded by stretching out the proceedings, filing multi-layered appeals and procedural requests, but he was unable to turn the tide in his favor.
January 2023: A verdict that reshapes the estate
In a watershed ruling, the Vaud cantonal court concluded that the brother had exercised psychological and financial control over his mother for years, steering her to the advantage of himself at her expense. As a result, he was effectively disinherited, and the sister was declared the sole heir. The court did not stop there: the Swiss Federal Supreme Court later refused to overturn the cantonal decision, underscoring the strength of the evidence of undue influence and the sister’s claim to the estate. The judgment also required the brother to pay about 3,000 Swiss francs in court costs.
What this case reveals about Swiss succession law
The Vaud case highlights several enduring questions in Swiss inheritance matters: the risk of undue influence in testamentary dispositions, the safeguards provided by curatorship and provisional guardianships, and the difficulty of overturning long-standing testamentary changes once challenged more than a decade later. It also underscores how courts balance the intentions of a decedent against evidence of coercion or manipulation by a capable, often financially powerful, relative.
Impact on families and future cases
For families facing complex succession disputes, the Vaud decision serves as a cautionary tale about the importance of independent legal advice for vulnerable persons and the value of timely intervention when signs of undue influence emerge. It also demonstrates that Swiss courts are willing to scrutinize long-standing testamentary plans and, when warranted, to correct injustices that arise through manipulation or coercion.
Bottom line
After more than 20 years of litigation, the sister’s perseverance secured her status as the sole heir to the mother’s estate. The brother’s appeals were denied, and the case now stands as a landmark reminder in Swiss law of the primacy of a decedent’s true free will and the protective role of the courts in safeguarding vulnerable family members.
