When his father died eight years ago, Eduard Mamčak from the town of Šamorín inherited one third of his father's money, with another third going to his sister in the USA and the final third going to a sibling of whom he did not know existed until recently. This was reported in the Pravda daily on Tuesday.
It took six years before a court in Košice ruled that Mamčak is the rightful inheritor of his share of the money, which amounts to around €21,000. However Mamčak was not informed at the time and only found out about the court's decision later. He was only able to get hold of a document confirming the ruling earlier this year. He took the ruling to the bank to gain access to his funds. “In August, I went to the bank for the first time with the original copy of the ruling from the Košice court. The bank staff took a photocopy and promised that they would get back to me within two days," said Mamčak. Two days later Mamčak received a phone call from Tatra Banka in which he was told that he would be able to withdraw the money only under a special condition: “All three inheritors were supposed to meet at the bank and decide what to do next about the inheritance. They said that it could also be representatives of my siblings. It's supposed to be the bank's own internal rule”, said Mamčak. His sister lives in the USA, but the even larger problem is that he doesn't know where his other sibling is. When the paper contacted Tatra Banka for confirmation, it was told that the requirement does indeed apply. The bank added, however, that if it isn't possible for all the inheritors to appear together, this is not considered to be an obstacle. Mamčak claims that the bank didn't inform him of this and is subsequently taking the bank to court. When approached on the subject, Slovakia's central bank (NBS) told the daily that Tatra Banka should have paid the money based on the ruling of the Košice court alone. Lawyer and former Constitutional Court judge Ján Drgonec notes that such internal rules were common for banks in the past, but not any longer, and he agrees with Mamčak’s lawyer that Tatra Banka is breaking the law.
