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Egypt Independent
The Family Affairs Department of the Cairo Court of Appeals upheld a judicial ruling on Monday, applying Christian religious law in an inheritance dispute among Christians from the same denomination.
The case dates back to 2019, when a Christian Egyptian Magda Youssef al-Bendary, filed a lawsuit to refuse the application of Islamic Sharia in the distribution of an inheritance between her and her four brothers, which would have resulted in her receiving half of what they each received.
She demanded that following her sister’s death on 19 August 2015, she receives the same share as her male siblings, in accordance with the principles of Christian law.
Following article 1797 of Egypt’s inheritance law, enacted in 2015, the principles of Islamic Sharia, which state that a woman receives half of the inheritance that a man does. The law is generally applied to Egyptian Christians and Muslims alike.
However, according to the Christian law, half of the inheritance should go to the deceased’s spouse and the other half should be divided equally among the children.
In the court’s ruling, issued on 30 July 2019, the court of first instance in Cairo’s Nasr City annulled the declaration of inheritance based on Islamic Sharia, and ordered the application of Christian law, resulting in half of the inheritance being split equally among the five siblings, with the deceased’s husband to receive the second half.
The court relied on Article Three of Law No. 1 of 2000, which stipulates that court rulings in disputes relating to personal status between non-Muslim Egyptians of the same denomination should be in accordance with the litigants’ own religious rules.
The court stated that the two parties in the Bendary case are Christian Orthodox, and it, therefore, applied Orthodox Maglis el-Milli (Congregational Council) rules to their case.
According to Article 147 of the Orthodox Maglis el-Milli law, if the deceased does not have a father or mother, then the husband or wife receives half the inheritance and the rest is divided equally among their children.
The plaintiff’s male siblings challenged the Nasr City court’s ruling and requested that Islamic Sharia be applied to the case.
The Cairo Court of Appeals rejected the brothers’ appeal on 20 May and ordered the re-distribution of the inheritance according to Christian law.
Several appellate civil courts have previously issued court rulings equally dividing inheritance between Christian brothers and sisters, in accordance with the Christian law and on the condition that all the siblings agree.
The Cairo Court of Appeals, however, recognized the right to distribute the inheritance equally, without requiring the consent of all the siblings involved.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm.
