涉訟榮民遺囑之特徵與法律問題

A Study on Veterans' Wills in Court's Cases and the Legal Issues

榮民的遺產繼承問題近來廣受矚目，本研究先以遺囑相關判決對榮民繼承之特徵進行簡單的實證觀察，發現其數量以人口比例言相當多，可能因為單身亡故榮民在台灣並無法定繼承人，預立遺囑比率高之故。其次，在榮民可選擇的遺囑形式中，公證遺囑之可信度最強，少數進入訴訟者，均為法院肯定其效力。代筆遺囑則容易要式不備，不過有些法院承認無效遺贈轉化為死因贈與，迂迴達成榮民遺願。其次，再對榮民涉訟遺囑進行裁判內容分析，探討法院對於不同種類的遺囑，採取何種標準認定其效力；而無效的遺囑，法院如何改解釋為死因贈與使之「起死回生」，並檢討法院見解之當否；最後，榮民涉訟遺囑內經常出現「後事或遺產全權交由某人處理」之文句，其性質是遺贈、遺囑執行抑或委任，本文認為須依個案的事務內容、明確性和實現可能性，具體判斷和解釋。榮民判決的分析成果，可呼應繼承法的比較法研究，亦即家庭結構及遺產性質之轉變，將使遺囑及涉訟數量增加，因此對未來台灣社會有重要意義。

This research analyzes 73 court cases regarding veterans' wills in Taiwan and found that the number of veteran's wills in litigation far more exceeds the proportion of the average number of those by general public. This result may be due to the reason that veterans do not have any heirs in Taiwan so that they are incentivized to draft wills to deal with their estates. Otherwise the estates will accrue to the Treasury. Secondly, by examining court's probate decisions, this study concludes that there seem no special factors affecting court's decision whether a will is valid. With regard to the form of wills, a notarized will is considered as the most reliable form. On the other hand, a dictated will would be controversial because of its complicated formality, such as presence of three witnesses, an oral statement of the testator, and signatures by all witnesses and the testator. However, in order to achieve testator's wish, some courts consider an invalid bequest to be a valid gift causa mortis. Finally, sentence such as 'my funeral affairs and estate should be dealt by A' is frequently seen in veterans' wills. It is not easy to define whether it is bequest, appointment of executor, or proxy to the A. This research suggests to decide by the content, its explicitness and possibility to realize on a case by case basis.