The article aims at studying the specific aspects pertaining to court proceedings with regard to creditors’ claims against heirs of a deceased debtor, and also to determining and selection of an efficient remedy for protection of their rights. The author gives a special focus to such an issue as protection of creditor’s rights which arose in the contractual monetary obligation with the testator while the latter was alive but remained unfulfilled by him/her, which cover the monetary obligations arising in connection with the contracts entered into by the testator, as well as in connection with non-performance of the same (including improper performance).

The purpose of the article is to determine the shortcomings present in legal regulation of these civil relations, and also to present the author’s own vision regarding the introduction of the best ways to improve it.

The author establishes that the obligation involving the testator’s creditor continues to be valid with the prior content even in case of commencement of succession in connection with death, except when this obligation is inextricably linked to the personality of the testator and thus such legal relations are terminated by the person’s death. Inheritance as a transfer of rights and obligations (estate) from an individual who died (the testator) to other persons (heirs) is the basis for universal succession in civil relations, where only a replacement of one of their participants occurs and civil legal relations continue and maintain their main characteristics.

The article demonstrates that in the event the testator dies, his/her heirs who accepted the inheritance and did not refuse to accept it, replace him/ her in all of the legal relations which existed at the time of commencement of succession and did not cease due to the testator’s death. The article analyzes how the violated rights of the creditor may be protected in court if the debtor died, and indicates that in these legal relations it is inexpedient for the creditor to use only the special remedy provided for in paragraph 2, Part 2, Article 1282 of the Civil Code of Ukraine (Ukraine’s CC).

The author reaches the conclusion that a creditor in hereditary relations is entitled at own discretion to choose the legal remedy prescribed in the general list of means for protecting civil rights under Article 16 of Ukraine’s CC, or to apply a special remedy provided for in paragraph 2, Part 2, Article 1282 of Ukraine’s CC. The availability of a special remedy protecting certain civil rights and interests of the testator’s creditors should not exclude the possibility for the court to apply general remedies provided for in the list under Article 16 of Ukraine’s CC.

List of legal documents

Legislation 1. Tsyvilnyi kodeks Ukrainy [The Civil Code of Ukraine]: Zakon Ukrainy [the Law of Ukraine] vid 16 sichnia 2003 r. № 435-IV <https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/435-15> (accessed: 13.02.2019) (in Ukrainian).

2. Tsyvilnyi protsesualnyi kodeks Ukrainy [The Code of Civil Procedure of Ukraine]: Zakon Ukrainy [the Law of Ukraine] vid 18 bereznia 2004 r. № 1618-IV <http://zakon. rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1618-15> (accessed: 13.02.2019) (in Ukrainian).

Cases

3. Chahal v. the United Kingdom: Court Judgment 15.11.1996. Арр. 2414/93 <http:// hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-58004> (accessed:13.02.2019) (in English).

4. Pro sudovu praktyku u spravakh pro spadkuvannia [On the Court Practice in Inheritance Cases]: postanova plenumu Verkhovnoho Sudu Ukrainy [Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Ukraine] vid 30 travnia 2008 r. № 7 <https://zakon. rada.gov.ua/laws/show/v0007700-08> (accessed: 13.02.2019) (in Ukrainian). Bibliography

Authored books

5. Huz L, Praktyka zastosuvannia spadkovoho prava v sudovii ta notarialnii diialnosti [Practice of Inheritance Law Application in Court and Notarial Activities] (Pravo 2015) (in Ukrainian).

6. Kukhariev O, Aktualni pytannia spadkovoho prava v sudovii praktytsi: Praktychnyi posibnyk [Topical Issues of Inheritance Law in Judicial Practice: Practical Guide] (Alerta 2017) (in Ukrainian).

7. Korotiuk O, Spadkove pravo: Komentar do knyhy I Tsyvilnoho kodeksu Ukrainy [Inheritance Law: Commentary on Book 1 of the Civil Code of Ukraine] (OVK 2017) (in Ukrainian).

8. Serebrovskij V, Ocherki sovetskogo nasledstvennogo prava [Essays on the Soviet Law of Inheritance] (Statut 1997) (in Russian).

9. Zaika Yu, Spadkove pravo v Ukraini: stanovlennia i rozvytok: monohrafiia [Inheritance Law in Ukraine: Establishment and Development: Monograph] (KNT 2007) (in Ukrainian).

Edited books

10. Dzera O ta Kuznietsova N ta Luts V (za red), Naukovo-praktychnyi komentar Tsyvilnoho kodeksu Ukrainy [Scientific and Practical Commentary on the Civil Code of Ukraine] (5th edn, Yurinkom Inter 2013) (in Ukrainian).

11. Spasibo-Fateeva I i Pechenyj О i drugie, Har’kovskaja civilisticheskaja shkola: grani nasledstvennogo prava: monografija [Kharkov School of Civil Law: the Facets of Inheritance Law: Monograph] (Spasibo-Fateeva I red, Pravo 2016) (in Russian).

Journal articles

12. Chernohor N, ‘Vidpovidalnist spadkoiemtsiv za borhy spadkodavtsia: problema potrebuie zakonodavchoho vyrishennia’ [‘Liability of Heirs for Debts of the Testator: the Issue Requires Legislative Solution’] (2013) 15 Chasopys tsyvilistyky (in Ukrainian).

13. Hlavach I, ‘Realizatsiia prav kredytora u spadkovomu pravovidnoshenni kriz pryzmu zakonodavchoho rehuliuvannia’ [‘Implementation of Creditor’s Rights in Hereditary Legal Relations through the Prism of Legislative Regulation’] [2016] 2(14) Naukovoinformatsiinyi visnyk Ivano-Frankivskoho universytetu prava imeni Korolia Danyla Halytskoho (in Ukrainian).

14. Khodyko Yu, ‘Shchodo osoblyvostei pravovoho rezhymu ob’iekta spadkovoho pravovidnoshennia’ [‘On the Specific Aspects of the Legal Regime of the Object in Hereditary Legal Relations’] (2016) 40 Naukovyi visnyk Uzhhorodskoho natsionalnoho universytetu (in Ukrainian).

Thesis abstracts

15. Kot O, ‘Problemy zdiisnennia ta zakhystu sub’iektyvnykh tsyvilnykh prav’ [‘Issues of Exercise and Protection of Subjective Civil Rights’] (avtoref dys d-ra yuryd nauk, Naukovo-doslidnyi instytut pryvatnoho prava i pidpryiemnytstva imeni akademika F H Burchaka 2017) (in Ukrainian).