INTERPRETACIÓN DE TESTAMENTO Y COMENTARIO A LA SENTENCIA DE 27 DE ABRIL DE 2010.

Abstract

The problem raised by the issue of will interpretation is certainly one of the most thrilling that the law of successions poses. This paper deals with the interpretation of a will made in the 1920s, causing succession to be opened years later, in 1945, when an expression stated in the will, «legitimate issue», set off a major dispute. The matter went all the way to the Constitutional Court in an appeal for protection of civil rights; the appellants considered they had been discriminated against because they were adopted daughters.
The Constitutional Court ruled that the interpretation of the will was not a matter for discussion and focused instead on article 14 of the Constitution, which establishes the rule that all are equal in the eyes of the law. From the viewpoint of the author of this paper, the ruling is polemic, because it rules out any kind of interpretation whatsoever of the testamentary clause containing the phrase «legitimate issue», finds for the appellants and ignores the sovereign will of the testator, which should have been heeded under the law of succession but in this case was not.