Harry Potter and the Legacy of Thing Other people node Right Brazilian

1. HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE

⚠️ Contains Spoilers

At the end of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," Albus Dumbledore is murdered by Severus Snape, the result of a plan between the two so that Snape could infiltrate the Death Eaters and also to prevent Draco Malfoy from having to carry this heavy burden. In truth, Dumbledore knew he had only a short time left to live, due to a curse.

Scene from the film “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”

He also imagined that Voldemort would recruit Draco Malfoy to kill him, as his father, Lucius Malfoy, was a devoted Death Eater.

In this way, he devised a plan in which Severus Snape could infiltrate Voldemort's followers to help Harry Potter.

In the book "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," it is discovered that Dumbledore left a will. As his last will, he left a copy of his book "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" to Hermione Granger, and his Deluminator to Ronald Weasley.

Harry Potter was also left with the Golden Snitch captured in his first Quidditch match in the book “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” and the Sword of Gryffindor, present throughout the saga.

This is where the problem begins, since the Sword of Gryffindor wasn't owned by Albus Dumbledore, but rather by Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In Brazilian law, this issue translates into the concept of "Legacy of Other People's Things," also known as "Legacy of Property Belonging to a Third Party."

2. THE LEGACY OF ANOTHER'S THINGS

The legacy consists of the certain and determined (or, exceptionally, determinable) good, left by the owner of the inheritance, to someone, called legatee, by express manifestation in a will or codicil (GAGLIANO, PAMPLONA FILHO, 2017, p. 1522).

Article 1,912 of the 2002 Civil Code establishes that the legacy of a specific thing that does not belong to the testator at the time of the opening of the succession is ineffective.

One of the exceptional hypotheses for admitting the legacy of goods belonging to another would be that this third party, owner of the good stated in the will, is named in the will to receive a legacy, and that there is a conditional provision, in which he would only receive the good if he hands over the thing that is his property, in our example: the Sword of Gryffindor (FERNANDES, 2018, p. 87-88).

Article 1,913 highlights that if an heir or legatee refuses to hand over something belonging to him/her to another, as conditioned in a will, it is understood that there has been a waiver of the inheritance or legacy.

Ribeiro (2017, p. 204) explains that there is yet another exceptional situation in which the bequest of someone else's property is permitted, when the object of the liberality is something determinable by type and quantity, in which case the disposition must be fulfilled even if such property does not exist among the collection left by the deceased, since the type does not belong to anyone.

Maria Helena Diniz (2014, p. 1449) exemplifies this situation with the case of a testator who leaves a person a horse or 200 bags of rice, even if these goods do not exist in his inheritance, the executor, heir or legatee must buy them with the resources of the estate, to satisfy the legacy.

Finally, Ribeiro (2017, p. 204 – 205) also teaches that the Ministry of Magic's decision to refuse to fulfill the legacy of someone else's property was the most correct one, since Godric Gryffindor's sword did not belong to him and would not fit into any of the exceptional hypotheses of effectiveness.

MAIN INSPIRATION AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCE

RIBEIRO, Raphael Rego Borges. Harry Potter and Civil Law. In: TRINDADE, André Karam; NETTO, Menelick de Carvalho. Proceedings of the XXVI National Meeting of CONPEDI Brasilia (DF): Law, Art and Literature. 2017.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

DINIZ, Maria Helena. Annotated Civil Code. 17th ed. São Paulo: Saraiva, 2014. ISBN 978·85·02·21537-5.

FERNANDES, Maria Clara Silva. Notes on Legacies. In: Legal Content Bulletin No. 886. 2018. ISSN – 1984- 0454

GAGLIANO, Pablo Stolze; PAMPLONA FILHO, Rodolfo. Manual of civil law; single volume. São Paulo: Saraiva, 2017. ISBN 978-85-472-1677-1.