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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §2.14.40.pr-2.14.40.3

In Rem Pacts, Appeal Settlements, and Division of Debts

Passage 406 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This text addresses the scope of general versus personal agreements, the enforcement of settlements in appeal cases, the survival of fractional actions when interest is accepted without formal delegation, and the protection of subsequent testamentary heirs in dowry return agreements via exceptio doli.

[IDEM libro primo responsorum. ] §2.14.40.prTale pactum 'profiteor te non teneri' non in personam dirigitur, sed cum generale sit, locum inter heredes quoque litigantes habebit.
[THE SAME, Opinions, book 1] An agreement such as 'I declare that you are not held liable' is not directed to a specific person, but since it is of a general nature, it will also hold good between disputing heirs.
§2.14.40.1Qui prouocauit, pactus est intra diem certum pecunia, qua transegerat, non soluta iudicatis se satisfacturum: iudex appellationis nullo alio de principali causa discusso iustam conuentionem uelut confessi sequetur.
He who appealed agreed that if the money for which he had settled were not paid within a certain day, he would satisfy the judgment; the appellate judge, without discussing any other matter concerning the principal cause, shall follow the lawful agreement just as if the party had confessed.
§2.14.40.2Post diuisionem bonorum et aeris alieni singuli creditores a singulis heredibus non interpositis delegationibus in solidum, ut conuenerat, usuras acceptauerunt: actiones, quas aduersus omnes pro partibus habent, impediendao non erunt, si non singuli pro fide rei gestae totum debitum singulis offerant.
After the division of the estate and the debts, the individual creditors, without any delegations being interposed, accepted interest in full from the individual heirs as had been agreed; the actions which they have against all of them for their respective shares will not be barred, unless the individual heirs offer the entire debt to the individual creditors in accordance with the good faith of the transaction.
§2.14.40.3Pater, qui dotem promisit, pactus est, ut post mortem suam in matrimonio sine liberis defuncta filia portio dotis apud heredem suum fratrem remaneret.
A father who promised a dowry agreed that, after his death, if his daughter died in marriage without children, a portion of the dowry should remain with his heir, her brother.
ea conuentio liberis a socero postea susceptis et heredibus testamento relictis per exceptionem doli proderit, cum inter contrahentes id actum sit, ut heredibus consulatur et illo tempore, quo pater alios filios non habuit, in fratrem suum iudicium supremum contulisse uideatur.
This agreement will benefit, by means of the defense of fraud, the children subsequently begotten by the father-in-law and left as heirs by his will, since it was intended between the contracting parties that the heirs should be protected, and at that time when the father had no other children, he is deemed to have conferred his final judgment upon his brother.

Notes

  1. §2.14.40.1pecunia, qua transegerat, non soluta — An ablative absolute construction formed by the noun 'pecunia' and the participle 'non soluta', expressing a conditional circumstance ('if the money is not paid'). The relative pronoun 'qua' is in the ablative case, governed by the verb 'transigere' in the relative clause.
  2. §2.14.40.1satisfacturum — An active future infinitive 'satisfacturum [esse]' in an accusative-and-infinitive construction, where the subject accusative 'se' (referring to the subject of 'pactus est', 'qui prouocauit') is implied. It functions as the object of 'pactus est'.
  3. §2.14.40.2impediendao — A scribal error in the manuscript; it should be emended to 'impediendae', the nominative feminine plural of the gerundive (or future passive participle) agreeing with the subject 'actiones'.
  4. §2.14.40.3socero — The term 'socer' (father-in-law) refers back to the 'pater' (the father who promised the dowry) at the beginning of the section, designated from the perspective of the daughter's husband (the son-in-law).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §2.14.40.pr-2.14.40.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:2.14.40.pr-2.14.40.3

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