In this case, a loan company mistakenly listed the wrong party in a statement of amended claims during the process of changing the heir, resulting in documents unrelated to Mr. A being served on him. Mr. A then filed a “no-claim” response and went about his daily life; Subsequently, after reviewing the judgment in which the facts had been corrected, Mr. A applied for special limited acceptance of the inheritance pursuant to Article 1019, Paragraph 3 of the Civil Code, and his application was approved. The court ruled that, since the personal relationships and the cause of the debt were inaccurate in the initially served documents, it was difficult to conclude that Mr. A had objectively recognized the inheritance debt, and thus deemed the acceptance of limited acceptance valid.

Hanbyol Law LLC Attorney Kim Yong-dae explained, based on this ruling, that “the three-month period for special limited acceptance should not be calculated mechanically based solely on the date of service of the litigation documents, but rather should be determined based on whether the heir could objectively recognize the existence and details of the inheritance debts.” He noted that the creditor’s claim of “gross negligence due to the passage of three months after the initial service” may vary depending on errors in the service documents and whether the facts were verified; and since there is a high likelihood that an application for limited acceptance will be deemed valid if erroneous documents were served, he advised that those who become aware of inheritance debts belatedly should not rashly waive their rights but should instead seek legal counsel.