Chapter VI: Gradual and residual gifts.

A gift may be subject to a charge involving an obligation on the donee or legatee to retain the property or rights that are the subject of the gift and to pass them on, on his or her death, to a second donee, designated in the deed.

A liberality thus granted may only take effect in respect of property or rights that are identifiable at the date of transmission and subsist in kind at the death of the encumbered person. Where it relates to transferable securities, the liberality also takes effect, in the event of alienation, in respect of the transferable securities that have been subrogated to it. Where it relates to immovable property, the charge encumbering…

The rights of the second grantee open on the death of the grantee. However, the grantee may abandon, in favour of the second grantee, the enjoyment of the property or right which is the subject of the liberality. This anticipated abandonment may not prejudice the creditors of the grantee prior to the abandonment, or third parties who have acquired, from the latter, a right to the property or right abandoned.

The second beneficiary is deemed to hold his rights from the author of the liberality. The same applies to his heirs where they receive the gift under the conditions provided for in Article 1056.

It is up to the disposing party to prescribe guarantees and securities for the proper performance of the charge.

The second gratified cannot be subject to the obligation to preserve and transmit. If the charge has been stipulated beyond the first degree, it remains valid but for the first degree only.

If the encumbered person is a reserved heir of the disposing person, the charge may only be imposed on the available portion. The donee may, however, accept, in the deed of gift or subsequently in a deed drawn up under the conditions provided for in Article 930, that the charge encumbers all or part of his reserve. The legatee may, within a period of one year from the day on…

The author of a gradual donation may revoke it in respect of the second gratified person as long as the latter has not notified the donor of his acceptance in the manner required for donations. By way of derogation from article 932, a gradual gift may be accepted by the second recipient after the donor’s death.

When the second gratified predeceases the indebted person or renounces the benefit of the gradual liberality, the property or rights that were the subject of it depend on the estate of the indebted person, unless the deed expressly provides that his heirs may receive it or designates another second gratified person.