- Source
- Digesta Iustiniani Augusti. Mommsen, Theodor & Krueger, Paul, editors. Berlin: Weidmann, 1870.
- Translation
- AI-generated (gemini-3.5-flash) — machine translation; may contain errors
- Languages
- 日本語 · English · 简体中文 · 한국어
- CTS URN
- urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:7.4.20.pr
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-13
Addressing the question of whether a usufructuary retains the usufruct when using only the property under the false belief of having only a use, the text distinguishes between cases of knowledge and ignorance.
[PAULUS libro quinto decimo ad Plautium.]
[PAULUS in the fifteenth book on Plautius.]
Is qui usum fructum habet si tantum utatur,1 quia existimet se usum tantum habere, an usum fructum retineat? et si quidem sciens se usum fructum habere tantum uti uelit, nihilo minus et frui uidetur: si uero ignoret, puto eum amittere fructum: non enim ex eo quod habet utitur,2 sed ex eo quod putauit se habere.
If a person who has a usufruct uses it only, because he thinks that he has only a use, does he retain the usufruct? And indeed, if knowing that he has a usufruct, he wishes only to use it, he is nonetheless deemed also to enjoy it; but if he is ignorant of this, I think that he loses the enjoyment: for he does not use by virtue of what he has, but by virtue of what he thought he had.
- 7.4.20.prIs qui usum fructum habet si tantum utatur
The phrase Is qui usum fructum habet at the beginning of the sentence is a nominativus pendens (pendent nominative), serving to introduce the logical subject of the subsequent conditional clause si tantum utatur and the interrogative clause an... retineat beforehand.
- 7.4.20.prex eo quod habet utitur
The preposition ex indicates the ground, cause, or source of a right, meaning "by virtue of" or "on the basis of". eo quod (the pronoun eo as the antecedent of the relative pronoun quod) refers to the right he actually "has" (the entire usufruct).