Top French court clarifies rules on foreign language wills

A will written in a language unknown to the testator can now be valid in France if certain conditions were met when it was written, France’s highest court has ruled.

The decision means that native English speakers who do not understand French can leave a French will as long as it is drawn up later than February 18, 2015 by a notaire and using a court appointed translator.

The ruling by the Cour de Cassation on January 17, 2025, involved the case of an Italian woman who did not speak or write French, who left a French will in 2002 under testament authentique rules.

An interpreter was used to draw up the will in the presence of the woman and the notaire - who himself said he was fluent in Italian - a practice which was not allowed in France for testament authentique wills before 2015 when provision was made for the use of court appointed interpreters when wills are drawn up.

When the woman died, in 2015, her remaining close family was made up of three daughters, a son and a grandson, whose mother, the fourth daughter, had died in 1994.

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Battle over 'wishes of the deceased'

The will favoured the three daughters, but the grandson took the matter to court, arguing that the will did not express the wishes of his grandmother.

A first appeal court in Lyon said the will was valid because, although it had been drawn up before 2015 when interpreters were not allowed to be involved in the creation of a testament authentique, it did meet all the criteria for a testament international.

A testament international is a form of will designed to be valid in multiple countries.

The grandson, who lives in Mexico, then took the matter to the Cour de cassation, France’s highest civil and criminal court, and won the case. 

The judges said the appeal court was wrong in its argument, and that even a testament international should be written in a language understood by the person making the will.

They ordered the appeal court to rejudge the matter.

But at the second hearing, this time heard in Chambéry (Savoie) by different judges, the appeal court effectively challenged the Cour de Cassation, and ruled again that the will was valid, this time arguing specifically that the presence of the interpreter when the will was drawn up made it a valid testament international.

Again, the grandson took the case to the Cour de Cassation.

With this challenge, the Cour de Cassation, met in full session (the previous hearing had been heard by just the first chambre civil) - something which happens relatively rarely in the French justice system - amounting to a court session with the greatest weight, and whose judgements often lead to new interpretations of the law.

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Legal questions

Judges had to consider three questions:

• If a testament international has to be written in a language understood by the person making the will, or if it can be written with the help of an interpreter?

• If it can be written by an interpreter, does the interpreter have to be on the roll of court interpreters (inscrit sur une liste d’experts judiciaires?)

• Will the answers to the first two questions mean there is a way to “save” the will rather than having the woman’s estate divided as if no will existed?

Their ruling changed French law because the court accepted that a testament international could be drawn up in a language not understood by the person leaving the will.

However, it insisted notaires must use an interpreter under rules established since February 18, 2015 for a testament authentique – that is, one who is registered on the roll of court interpreters – and that the will had to be drawn up after February 18, 2015.

In this case it meant that the will was declared invalid, and the woman’s estate should be handled as if no will existed.

Court documents do not say if this ruling means the grandson will gain more or less from the ruling than if the original will stood.

A link to the court’s press release around the case can be found here.