My father's will requires my brother to personally care for our mother as a condition of inheriting. Can my father write the will so that if a substitute takes my brother's place, the substitute must fulfill that same personal-care condition too?

The default: burdens carry over

When a substitution takes effect — because the originally instituted heir predeceases the testator, repudiates the inheritance, or is incapacitated to inherit — the substitute does not step into a blank slate. Article 862 makes the substitute subject to the same charges and conditions the testator attached to the original heir, so obligations like paying a specific legacy, supporting a named dependent, or observing a condition before the gift vests ordinarily bind the substitute too, exactly as they bound the person originally named.

The exception for personal conditions

The same article carves out conditions that are personally applicable only to the heir instituted. Some burdens are written for a specific person because of who they are — their relationship, skills, or personal commitment — and make no sense imposed on someone else entirely. Left to the default rule alone, a personal condition like directly caring for a relative is not carried over to the substitute, even though the general rule would otherwise transfer it automatically, because the testator's evident intent was tied to that one individual.

The testator can override either rule

But Article 862 does not leave that default beyond the testator's control. The same sentence that creates the personal-condition exception also lets the testator expressly provide the contrary, meaning the will itself can override either rule. A testator who wants the caregiving duty to bind whoever ultimately inherits, original heir or substitute alike, only needs to say so in the will rather than relying on the default outcome, since express language always controls over the article's default presumption.

Why the drafting matters

Absent that express language, the exception controls and the substitute takes the inheritance free of the personal condition. This puts the outcome squarely in the drafting: silence favors the substitute, while a clause extending the condition to any substitute binds them just as it bound the heir originally named, which is why testators who care about continuity of a personal duty should spell it out rather than assume the default rule will do the work.

Related provisions

• Civil Code, Article 862 — The Substitute Takes the Same Burdens
• Civil Code, Article 857 — Substitution Defined
• Civil Code, Article 859 — Simple Substitution