IMPOSITION OF SUBSIDIARY LIABILITY ON HEIRS OF A PARTY CONTROLLING THE DEBTOR

Inheritance relationships have always been a challenging private law sphere. The problems concerning inheritance of debts have lately added to the discrepancies related to the regulation of these relationships. Such situation is caused by the introduction of some novelties in Russian laws and the adoption of key judicial acts by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and other judicial authorities. One of such novelties is inheritance of a debt arising out of subsidiary liability of parties controlling the debtor in the course of a bankruptcy procedure. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has actually broadened the range of subjects that may be brought to subsidiary liability. The court has established that upon acceptance of property by heirs of the parties controlling a debtor, they also inherit the testator's debt to the creditors of the bankrupt legal entity under the testator's control (by virtue of the interpretation of the legal nature of subsidiary liability by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation). It causes a number of questions concerning right protection means, violation of creditors' rights by minors, limits of acknowledgment of a citizen as a party controlling a debtor, etc. One of the key actions within the framework of inheritance relationships in the notarial practice is not only determination of the range of heirs, but also identification of the testator's property and assurance of its safety. The mentioned position of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation establishes the amount of subsidiary liability as an estate part (broadly speaking, property), which may raise a number of problems in notarial activities.