Short answer. Only the causes Article 920 lists. Abandonment is there, as is refusal to support without justifiable cause and the loss of parental authority. Abuse as such is not named, so a history of maltreatment has to be fitted to one of the numbered grounds rather than pleaded in its own words.
What the law says
When the parents have abandoned their children or induced their daughters to live a corrupt or immoral life, or attempted against their virtue
Civil Code, Article 920 — Grounds to Disinherit Parents and Ascendants. Read the full provision →
What the law says
Maltreatment of the testator by word or deed, by the child or descendant
Civil Code, Article 919 — Grounds to Disinherit Children and Descendants. Read the full provision →
What the law says
Disinheritance can be effected only through a will wherein the legal cause therefor shall be specified.
Civil Code, Article 916 — Disinheritance Must Be in a Will. Read the full provision →
What the law says
A subsequent reconciliation between the offender and the offended person deprives the latter of the right to disinherit, and renders ineffectual any disinheritance that may have been made.
Civil Code, Article 922 — Reconciliation Wipes Out Disinheritance. Read the full provision →
The list is closed, and abuse is not on it
Article 920 gives eight sufficient causes for disinheriting a parent or ascendant. The first is When the parents have abandoned their children or induced their daughters to live a corrupt or immoral life, or attempted against their virtue; the seventh is the refusal to support the children or descendants without justifiable cause; the sixth is the loss of parental authority for causes specified in this Code. The remaining grounds concern an attempt on the testator's life, a false accusation of a serious crime, adultery or concubinage with the testator's spouse, procuring a will by fraud or violence, and an attempt by one parent on the life of the other.
The asymmetry worth knowing about
Article 919, which governs the disinheritance of children and descendants, includes as a cause Maltreatment of the testator by word or deed, by the child or descendant. Article 920 has no counterpart running the other way. A parent may therefore disinherit a child for maltreatment in those words, while an adult child cannot disinherit a parent on that footing alone. This is why real cases are usually built on abandonment or on the refusal to support, and why the sixth cause matters: whether a particular history amounts to loss of parental authority is governed by the law on parental authority, and is a question to put to counsel rather than assume.
How it must be done
Disinheritance can be effected only through a will wherein the legal cause therefor shall be specified. Article 916 admits nothing informal — not a letter, not an affidavit, not an understanding among siblings. The cause has to be stated, and stated as one of the recognised grounds. Article 918 sets out the cost of getting it wrong: a disinheritance without a specified cause, or for a cause not set forth in the Code, annuls the institution of heirs insofar as it prejudices the person disinherited. A parent left out on an unrecognised ground therefore recovers, which is exactly the outcome the will was meant to prevent.
Evidence, and the reconciliation trap
Article 917 places the burden of proving the truth of the cause on the other heirs if the disinherited person denies it — and by then the testator cannot testify. So the record has to be built while he or she is alive: dates and documents for the abandonment, records of support demanded and refused, any proceedings that touched parental authority. Then keep Article 922 in view: A subsequent reconciliation between the offender and the offended person deprives the latter of the right to disinherit, and renders ineffectual any disinheritance that may have been made. A later resumption of contact can undo the whole clause.
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 920 — Grounds to Disinherit Parents and Ascendants
- Civil Code, Article 919 — Grounds to Disinherit Children and Descendants
- Civil Code, Article 915 — Disinheritance Defined
- Civil Code, Article 916 — Disinheritance Must Be in a Will
- Civil Code, Article 917 — Who Must Prove the Cause
- Civil Code, Article 918 — Defective Disinheritance
- Civil Code, Article 922 — Reconciliation Wipes Out Disinheritance