Administrator's Authority to Evict During Inheritance Division

The court considered whether an officially appointed administrator of an estate has the authority under Article 554 of the Civil Code to evict a person residing rent-free in the deceased's property, where an inheritance division process is pending. The court ruled that the administrator's powers are fundamentally conservative, aimed at preserving the estate's value and condition until it can be handed over to the heirs in its original form, and thus do not extend to actions like eviction unless the continued use poses a specific threat of devaluation or loss to the estate. Since the administrator failed to allege any such concrete threat, but merely made general claims, the court concluded that terminating the existing right of use—which originated with the deceased's consent—was beyond the scope of the administrator's limited administrative and conservatory mandate, and therefore dismissed the eviction request.