Hanoi siblings at each other's neck in court over land inheritance

An appeal trial by the High People's Court of Hanoi on Wednesday saw sisters Thu, 61, and Dong, 56, suing their adopted brother Xuan, 71, claiming that Xuan took over two land plots that supposedly belong to them.

Their parents have four children: three blood siblings Thu, Dong, and Ha; and an adopted child, Xuan. Ha died in 2009. The children were named after the four seasons in Vietnamese.

The parents have four adjacent land plots in Long Bien District, spanning 656 m2 in total. The father died in 1992 without a written will, but reportedly told his children that each of them would get one land plot.

In 1995, the sons, Xuan and Ha, each took one land plot as their father wanted. The other two land plots continued to be used by the family for planting trees, but the taxes were paid by Xuan and Ha.

In 2006, Xuan asked his sisters to sign papers for him to make a land use rights certificate for land plot No. 1. He promised to return the two land plots which were being used for planting trees then.

In 2014, Ha’s wife, Sen, requested the sisters to sign paper to make a certificate for land plot No. 2 as well.

The sisters alleged that Xuan did not return the land plots to them as he promised due to conflicts. Thu also discovered in 2016 that Xuan had also made a certificate for one of the land plots that their parents promised for her. Thu claimed that there was paper and signature forgery involved to steal her inherited land plot.

As such, Thu is now suing to void all three land use right certificates which have been issued, and to divide the land plots from the beginning.

Xuan claimed that when he registered for the land use right certificate for the land plot that supposedly belongs to Thu, his mother alone signed the documents for him. Thu claimed that her mother was illiterate, so she did not sign papers. Xuan also showed an "agreement on dividing land plots" that was dated back to Oct. 2, 2016.

The agreement claimed that the mother gave the land plot in question to Xuan in 1995, with the mother signing it at the Sai Dong Ward People’s Committee.

Xuan also claimed that his father never promised any land plots to the two sisters, only that the land plots would be split among the brothers however they see fit. He said that Thu’s claims about their mother splitting the land plots among the four siblings, and about him promising to return the land plots to the sisters, were all untrue.

Xuan requested the court to not accept Thu’s requests.

According to documents by the mother while she was alive, she had said she did not know that her children were suing each other. She had also claimed that she was illiterate, and never came to the People’s Committee of the ward to sign papers. She never signed any papers to give someone land plots and houses, and only spoke about giving her sons land plots of the family.

She had also said that her husband had no written will, and did not talk about splitting the land plots among the siblings. When Thu requested for the land plots to be divided as inheritance, she had said she wanted to split parts of the gardening land plots to her daughters.

The mother had also said she did not know when Xuan and Sen registered for land use rights certificates.

The court said the two land plots that were given to the two sons would remain theirs, and the two other land plots used for gardening would be split in accordance with inheritance law.

The two land plots totaled to over VND10 billion in value, and the court said Thu and Dong will get VND1.7 each, while Xuan and Sen would get VND3.38 billion each. Xuan can also keep the land use rights certificate for the land plot that Thu claimed was hers, but he would also have to give Thu money as compensation.

While the three blood siblings decided to appeal this sentence, the court rejected this appeal as the judge panel advised them to make peace with each other as a family.