Juffali Magarang Sarip

4yr Juris Doctor (1B-JD4)

A Commentary on The Rightful Heir

There are times you turn on the Television and a soap opera, and if you watch a lot of those you
begin to see a pattern that plays the same ball game in every inning. A rich man marries a beautiful and
dashing woman who plots to take his fortune through devious means as well as some of the children of
the former. This is the typical story between an heir and devisee/legatee. It may not surprise you that
these things hit close to reality. There have been situations where men have been murdered due to the
greed and hate. That is the worst case scenario, but for the best it has to be causing tensions within
families. What I have learned is that people tend to value money over family when the situation arises. A
claim to the estate of a descendant, depending the amount, may reveal the inner demons of a family
member. I know that this situation happens, since it has happened in my family once. My Great-Aunt
died a couple of years ago, and the fact is that she gave her fortune away to her friend and not her
children which vexed her children. They argued for days on end, and when it was finally settled, the
damage was already done. The siblings distanced each other and the friend stayed clear of our family for
a while.

Succession has been a troubling subject to deal with especially when there is no will by the
deceased and I believe it still is. Though I have not yet tackled the subject of succession yet during my
life in law school I can already tell that it is not going to be easy. I believe that a person should choose a
devisee rather than let fate decide. That way no complications may arise after he/she has passed away.
A person should always ready his will and maybe make it a mandatory obligation so that his part of his
estate may not be confiscated by the state. Who knows? In the future soap-opera’s may introduce less
homicides and plot twists thought that may make them less interesting. To summarize my opinion on
the matter, is that I would rather have the state have the estate rather than see a family tear itself
apart. Devisees/Legatees is a preferable mode of succession to heirs where the decedent gets to choose
who is more worthy of his personal property.

Overall it was a great read, and furthered my knowledge on the concept of succession. It was
well compressed and I will look forward on tackling course on Succession during my second year.