Drugstore entrepreneur Müller wins inheritance dispute
**Erwin Müller's Adopted Children Waive Their Multi-Million Dollar Inheritance Claims but Sue Him Instead**
Erwin Müller, the well-known entrepreneur from the drugstore chain Müller, has won the inheritance dispute with his three adult adopted children. The Landgericht Ulm dismissed the children's request to declare a notarized contract on the waiver of their inheritance shares as null and void in a civil trial. In this case, the dispute value was set at 30 million Euro, which is the statutory maximum.
Erwin Müller, who is now 91 years old, and his wife adopted three acquaintances as adults in 2015. At the time of the adoption application, the claimants waived their inheritance shares through a notarized contract. However, they later sued him. The court rejected their declaration that this waiver was invalid due to procedural errors. The court also ruled that it was not invalid for formal reasons and could not detect any immorality in the waiver.
The chamber was unable to convince itself during the oral hearing on May 6, 2024, that the adoptive children had received numerous financial promises and pledges as consideration for their waiver of inheritance shares from the Muller spouses. The court also stated that the adopted children were already in their middle adulthood at the time of adoption - this was not a case of young adults who could not grasp the implications of their waiver. The judgment is not final.
Müller Wants to Annul Adoption
According to media reports, the adopted children are a married couple and the brother of the husband. Müller is said to have met them while hunting. The adoption is reported to have taken place after Müller's rift with his biological son. The "Bild" newspaper estimated the potential inheritance at 500 million Euro.
Anita Müller, Erwin Müller's wife, told the newspaper last year that if the lawsuit succeeded, it would have serious consequences for the drugstore chain, "and the company would be bankrupt - and 40,000 employees would be unemployed." Müller allegedly wanted to annul the adoption due to a sense of ingratitude, but this could only be done with the consent of both parties and was rejected by the adopted children.
- Erwin Müller, a prominent figure in Baden-Württemberg's business community and the founder of the drugstore chain Müller, recently faced a legal challenge from his three adopted children in Ulm's Landgericht.
- Despite forfeiting their multi-million-dollar inheritance claims through a notarized contract in 2015, these children decided to bring a lawsuit against Erwin Müller, aiming to declare the contract invalid according to Germany's inheritance law.
- The court's ruling, delivered in a civil trial with a dispute value of 30 million Euro, upheld the validity of the notarized waiver, asserting that there were no procedural or formal errors in the process, and no immorality attributable to the agreement.
- The court's decision also dismissed claims that the adopted children had received financial promises as consideration for waiving their inheritance shares, emphasizing that they were adults at the time of adoption and capable of understanding the implications of their choices, thereby upholding the company's economic stability and preserving employment for the drugstore chain's 40,000 employees.
