Temple’s Rights to Acquire the Deceased Monk’s Properties

Abstract

This academic article aims to study the temple’s rights to acquire the properties of a deceased monk because. Typically, the temple has the rights to acquire the properties of a deceased monk as a legatee or acquire the properties under the Civil and Commercial Code, Section 1623. Acquiring a deceased monk’s properties by a temple in both conditions causes legal issues leading to misunderstandings in certain legal principles.

According to the study, the Sangha Act, B.E. 2505 (1962) states that a temple is a juristic person and entitled to be a legatee of a deceased monk’s properties, but the temple has to be established legally according to the provisions of the inheritance. For example, if the temple wishes to acquire properties, it should exercise its right within the statute of limitations according to the Civil and Commercial Code, Section 1754, the third paragraph and the last paragraph. Regarding acquiring the deceased monk’s property by a temple in another case according to the Civil and Commercial Code, Section 1623, which is a special provision concerning properties obtained by a monk during his monkhood, when the monk passes away, his properties become the properties of the deceased monk’s temple. The properties exclude the deceased monk’s debt before death because the legal provision does not use term “monk’s inheritance”, so the temple does not obtain the properties as an heir. Furthermore, the deceased monk’s creditor cannot enforce the debt settlement from the deceased monk’s properties.

The author suggests as follows. If a deceased monk has debt, does a creditor have the right to enforce the debt settlement from the deceased monk’s properties before those properties belong to a temple? The author argues that the creditor should not have the right to enforce the debt settlement from the deceased monk’s properties because Section 1623 states that any properties obtained by a monk during his monkhood does not use term “inheritance” which includes the monk’s debt. This provision deprives of all statutory heir’s rights of deceased monk; therefore, this includes the monk’s creditor.