The Entitlement or Non-entitlement of a Refusing Co-claimant to Property Recovered through a Supplementary Oath

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of Islamic Jurisprudence and Principles of Islamic Law, Ilam University, Ilam, Iran.

Abstract

There is no disagreement among Imami jurists regarding the establishment of jointly owned property by means of the evidentiary device of “one witness and an oath”, nor regarding the requirement that all claimants and co-owners must take the oath and that the rights of those who refuse to take it are not established. Their disagreement concerns the entitlement or non-entitlement of the refusing co-claimant to the property recovered by the swearing claimant. On this issue, for which there is no well-known dominant view among jurists, some have distinguished between specific property and debt, holding that in cases involving specific property the recovered property is shared between the swearing claimant and the refusing co-claimant, whereas in cases involving debt it belongs exclusively to the swearing claimant. Others maintain absolute co-entitlement, whether the case involves specific property or debt. A third group maintains absolute non-entitlement. Statutory law likewise contains no provision explicitly addressing this issue and determining its ruling. Given the importance of the matter, the central question is whether, where some co-claimants refuse to take the supplementary oath, the refusing co-claimant or co-claimants are entitled to the property recovered by the swearing claimant or claimants. This article identifies the existing juristic opinions on the issue, analyses and critiques the supporting arguments for each, and ultimately concludes that the preferable and well-substantiated theory is the distinction between specific property and debt. Accordingly, in cases involving specific property, the refusing co-claimant shares in the recovered property by virtue of the swearing claimant’s acknowledgment. In cases involving debt, however, the recovered property belongs exclusively to the swearing claimant by virtue of the rule of specification of debt. The competing opinions, given the weakness of their supporting arguments, are unable to establish their claims.

Keywords

References

References

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