Contract with the successor : current regulation in Polish civil law and its perspectives

In Polish law a contract with the successor is concluded between a farmer and a person who wants to continue farmer's agricultural activity. The farmer is obliged to transfer the ownership of the farm to the successor, if the latter works on the farm until the farmer acquires entitlement to a pension. The existence of this obligation depends on uncertain, future events. Therefore, provisions regulating condition precedent should be applied. The successor is not obliged to perform work on the farm; however, parties may introduce such obligation in a specific contract. The analysed contract has important impact on succession, because the value of the transferred farm is disregarded when determining the amount of reserved share. Consequently, farmer's closest family members have no financial claims against successor. This feature of the contract may be used to broaden the scope of freedom of testation (broadly understood). In the opinion of the author, the analyzed contract could apply also to other types of business activities conducted by natural persons