1. Article 1026 Subparag. 1 of the Civil Act provides that where an inheritor has performed a disposal act on inherited property, he/she shall be deemed to have performed a simple approval.

However, since there is no longer room to regard the qualified acceptance or renunciation of inheritance as a simple acceptance after the effect of the qualified acceptance or renunciation of inheritance takes effect, this provision shall be deemed to apply only to the case where the inherited property is disposed of before the effect

(See Supreme Court Decision 2003Da63586 Decided March 12, 2004). Meanwhile, the qualified acceptance or renunciation of inheritance does not take effect only by the inheritor’s declaration of intent, but also by reporting to the family court, and the adjudication shall take effect upon the notification by the parties concerned.

(See Supreme Court Decision 2004Da20401 Decided June 25, 2004). This is intended to protect the trust of third parties, such as co-inheritors or next-order inheritors, inheritance creditors, and the other party to the disposal of inherited property, by clarifying the existence of qualified acceptance or renunciation of the intent of qualified acceptance, so that the legal relationship arising from inheritance can be uniformly processed by means of inheritance.

Therefore, even if an inheritor reported the renunciation of inheritance to the family court, if the inheritor disposed of the inherited property before the judgment of the family court accepting it was notified, it constitutes an act of disposal before the renunciation of inheritance takes effect, and thus, it should be deemed as a simple approval of inheritance pursuant to Article 1026 subparagraph 1 of the Civil Act.

2. The lower court: (a) the deceased on December 27, 2011; (b) the heir, including the Defendant, filed a report of renunciation of inheritance with the Suwon District Court on January 26, 2012 that renounced inheritance of the deceased C’s property; and (c) the said court rendered a ruling to accept the report on March 14, 2012; and (d) the representative director of the D Co., Ltd., a company where the deceased C entered six cargo vehicles owned by the deceased C.