ATTENTION! automatic translation from Polish
According to the Supreme Court’s decision of 19 March 2021 (III CSKP 69/21), subject to the exceptions provided for in the Act, an agreement on the inheritance of a living person is invalid. The point is that it would restrict the parties entering into such an agreement. After concluding an inheritance agreement, the cancellation of the legal effects of such an agreement would only be possible by means of an agreement revoking the previously concluded inheritance agreement. The testator may revoke a will at any time without the need to provide a justification for his decision or involve other people when declaring his will. Therefore, allowing the existence of inheritance agreements conflicts with the principle according to which the testator is entitled to determine his last will until the moment of his death (see also the resolution of the Supreme Court of 13 December 2013, III CZP 79/13, OSP 2014, No. 10, item 91).
The inheritance agreement known to foreign legal systems does not constitute a title for inheritance under Polish law. An inheritance agreement, according to the position of the laws that allow it, may contain a disposition in the event of death of only one party (the testator) and then it is a unilateral agreement or of both parties (both parties then assume the role of the testator) and then it is a bilateral agreement. In Polish law, however, the only titles for inheritance are the act and the will. The provision of art. 941 of the Civil Code clearly states that property may be disposed of in the event of death only by a will. In accordance with art. 1047 of the Civil Code, subject to the exceptions provided for in the act, an agreement on inheritance after a living person is invalid.