SOME DISPUTABLE QUESTIONS RELATING TO ALEATORY NATURE OF THE LIFETIME MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT

Abstract

The contract on lifetime maintenance agreement has a long legal tradition, and the issue of its legal nature and legal effects has occupied the attention of the legal doctrine since the moment of its creation until today. Its complexity arises from its specific legal nature being more contract of the law of obligation, but of the specific importance for inheritance law, due to its indirect hereditary legal effects. Its specifcity to be of aleatory nature leaves the space for immoral and illegal conduct, and therefore possible abuse of the purpose of the contract in order to reach disproportionate material gain. In order to protect the interests of the recipients, the legislator proscribes the possibility of annulling this contract in case of lack of randomness. While the conditions for annulment in this case are not precisely de ned by law,a huge problem of different interpretations of these rules arises in practice, which makes more opportunities for its abuses, leading simultaneously to thelegal uncertainty.