Short answer. No. Article 954 says a legatee or devisee cannot accept part of a legacy or devise and repudiate the rest if that rest is onerous. You take the gift as a whole, burdens and all. There is one twist: if the legatee dies before accepting and leaves several heirs, each of them may separately accept or repudiate his own share.
What the law says
The legatee or devisee cannot accept a part of the legacy or devise and repudiate the other, if the latter be onerous.
Civil Code, Article 954 — No Partial Acceptance. Read the full provision →
No cherry-picking an onerous gift
A will can leave someone a benefit that also carries a burden, an onerous legacy or devise, such as property given on condition that the recipient pay a sum or perform an obligation. The law does not let the beneficiary keep the sweet and spit out the sour. Article 954 provides that the legatee or devisee cannot accept a part of the legacy or devise and repudiate the other, if the latter be onerous. He must take the gift whole, with its burden, or decline it entirely. Partial acceptance that keeps the benefit and sheds the burden is not allowed.
Why the rule exists
The rule protects the integrity of what the testator arranged. When a testator ties a benefit to a burden, the two are meant to go together; the gift was conditioned on the recipient shouldering the obligation. Letting the beneficiary accept only the advantageous part would defeat that intention and unfairly shift the burden onto the estate or other heirs. By requiring an all-or-nothing choice, Article 954 keeps the beneficiary from rewriting the testator's plan to his own advantage, honouring the linked nature of benefit and burden.
The exception for a deceased legatee's heirs
The article carves out one situation where the shares can be split. Should the legatee or devisee die before accepting, leaving several heirs, some of those heirs may accept and others may repudiate the share respectively belonging to them in the legacy or devise. Here the divisibility is between different persons, the deceased legatee's own heirs, each deciding about his own portion, rather than one person cherry-picking within a single gift. Each heir makes his own all-or-nothing choice as to his share, which is a different matter from splitting the gift itself.
What a beneficiary should weigh
Faced with an onerous legacy, a beneficiary should weigh the value of the benefit against the cost of the burden and decide on the whole package. If the burden outweighs the gift, the option is to repudiate the entire legacy, not to keep the property while disclaiming the obligation. Understanding Article 954 helps a beneficiary avoid the mistake of assuming he can accept selectively; the choice the law offers is to take the onerous gift complete or to let it go.