Short answer. No. Article 946 of the Civil Code requires you, as legatee or devisee, to respect an existing usufruct over the property left to you until that usufruct is legally extinguished. You inherit the property subject to the usufructuary's right, not free of it.

What the law says

If the thing bequeathed should be subject to a usufruct, the legatee or devisee shall respect such right until it is legally extinguished.

Civil Code, Article 946 — A Thing Subject to Usufruct. Read the full provision →

Why the usufruct survives the bequest

When property is left to you by will while someone else already holds a usufruct over it, meaning the right to use the property and enjoy its fruits, Article 946 does not let the bequest simply wipe out that existing right. It states that the legatee or devisee shall respect such right until it is legally extinguished. The bequest transfers what the testator was actually able to give, and if that property was already burdened by a usufruct, you take it subject to that same burden.

What respecting the right means for you

Respecting the usufruct means you cannot demand possession or full enjoyment of the property while the usufruct remains in effect; the usufructuary continues to use the property and receive its fruits under whatever terms governed that right. What you actually receive as legatee or devisee, while the usufruct continues, is generally what is called the bare or naked ownership, meaning ownership without the immediate right to use and enjoy the property until the usufruct comes to an end.

When you finally take the property free of the usufruct

Article 946 ties your full enjoyment of the property to the usufruct being legally extinguished, not to your own preference or convenience. Once the usufruct ends, however that happens, your rights as legatee or devisee are no longer limited by it, and you become entitled to the property without that encumbrance. Until that point, though, the property left to you remains subject to the usufructuary's right, exactly as Article 946 requires you to respect while it lasts.

Why this arrangement is common in estate planning

A testator will sometimes deliberately leave the same property to two different people in this layered way, granting one person the immediate use and enjoyment through a usufruct while leaving the underlying ownership to another. Article 946 is what makes that arrangement work as intended: it prevents the bequest of ownership from being read as overriding or cutting short a usufruct the testator meant to keep in place, preserving the layered structure the will actually set up between the two beneficiaries the testator chose to benefit in different ways.

Related provisions

Note. Statute text quoted on this page is reproduced from the official enactment and is linked to the full provision. The explanation around it is general legal information from Vivas & Nobles Law Office, not legal advice. Whether it applies to your situation depends on facts only a lawyer reviewing them can assess.