- 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-lat1:8.6.16.pr
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-15
This text discusses the effect of one user's non-use on individual rights to lead water through a shared channel, contrasting it with a co-owned estate, and determines who benefits from the extinguished share.
[PROCULUS libro primo epistularum.]
[PROCULUS, from the first book of Epistles.]
Aquam, quae oriebatur in fundo uicini, plures per eundem riuum iure ducere soliti sunt, ita ut suo quisque die a capite duceret, primo per eundem riuum eumque communem, deinde ut quisque inferior erat, suo quisque proprio riuo, et unus statuto tempore, quo seruitus amittitur, non duxit. existimo eum ius ducendae aquae amississe nec per ceteros qui duxerunt eius ius usurpatum esse:1 proprium enim cuiusque eorum ius fuit neque per alium usurpari potuit. quod si plurium fundo2 iter aquae debitum esset, per unum eorum omnibus his, inter quos is fundus communis fuisset, usurpari potuisset. item si quis eorum, quibus aquae ductus seruitus debebatur et per eundem riuum aquam ducebant, ius aquae ducendae non ducendo eam amisit, nihil iuris eo nomine ceteris, qui riuo utebantur, adcreuit idque commodum eius est, per cuius fundum id iter aquae, quod non utendo pro parte unius amissum est: libertate3 enim huius partis seruitutis fruitur.
Several persons were accustomed by right to lead water, which arose on a neighbor’s estate, through the same channel, in such a way that each led it from the source on his own day, at first through the same channel which was common, and then, as each was lower down, through his own private channel; and one of them did not lead it for the established period in which a servitude is lost. I think that he lost the right of leading water, and that his right was not preserved by the others who did lead it; for the right of each of them was individual, and could not be preserved by another. But if a right of way for water had been owed to an estate belonging to several persons, it could have been preserved by one of them for all those among whom that estate was common. Likewise, if any of those to whom a servitude of aqueduct was owed and who were leading water through the same channel lost the right of leading water by not leading it, no right accrued on that account to the others who were using the channel, and that advantage belongs to him through whose estate the watercourse runs, which was lost in respect of the share of one by non-use; for he enjoys freedom from this part of the servitude.
- 8.6.16.prusurpatum esse
The verb usurpare is used here not in the sense of 'to usurp', but in its technical Roman law sense of 'to interrupt prescription (extinction by non-use) and preserve a right through actual exercise'.
- 8.6.16.prplurium fundo
This phrase refers to a co-owned (communis) estate. It contrasts with the individual rights discussed previously, as the exercise of the servitude by any single co-owner preserves the right for all co-owners of that estate.
- 8.6.16.prlibertate
While libertas generally means 'freedom', in the context of property law (servitudes) it is a technical term meaning the liberation or release of the servient estate from the burden of the easement.