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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §22.3.27.pr

Legacy Disguised as Debt and Burden of Proof of Receipt

Passage 3245 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

In a case where a testator attempted to evade testamentary capacity limits by disguising a legacy as a debt repayment, the claim is allowed only if the legatee can prove that the funds actually reached the testator.

[SCAEUOLA libro trigesimo tertio digestorum. ] §22.3.27.prQui testamentum faciebat ei qui usque ad certum modum capere potuerat legauit licitam quantitatem, deinde ita locutus est: 'Titio centum do lego, quae mihi pertulit: quae ideo ei non caui, quod omnem fortunam et substantiam, si quam a matre susceperat, in sinu meo habui sine ulla cautione.
[SCAEUOLA libro trigesimo tertio digestorum.] A person who was making a will bequeathed a lawful amount to someone who had been able to take only up to a certain limit, and then spoke as follows: "I give and bequeath to Titius one hundred, which he brought to me; for which I did not give him a security for this reason, that I held all the fortune and substance, whatever he had received from his mother, in my possession without any security.
item eidem Titio reddi et solui uolo de substantia mea centum quinquaginta, quae ego ex reditibus praediorum eius (quorum ipse fructum percepi et distraxi), item de calendario (si qua a matre receperat Titius) in rem meam conuerti'. quaero, an Titius ea exigere potest.
Likewise, I wish one hundred and fifty to be returned and paid to the same Titius from my estate, which I converted to my own account from the revenues of his estates (the fruits of which I myself gathered and disposed of), and also from the ledger (if Titius had received anything from his mother)." I ask whether Titius can demand these.
respondit, si Titius supra scripta ex ratione sua ad testatorem peruenisse probare potuerit, exigi: uidetur enim eo, quod ille plus capere non poterat, in fraudem legis haec in testamento adiecisse.
He answered that if Titius could prove that the above-mentioned sums had come to the testator from his own account, they can be demanded; for the testator is deemed, by the fact that Titius could not take any more, to have added these to the will in fraud of the law.

Notes

  1. §22.3.27.prconverti — Although it could be interpreted as a passive infinitive, the presence of the nominative pronoun 'ego' immediately preceding it indicates that it is the first-person singular perfect active indicative ('converti'), meaning 'I converted'.
  2. §22.3.27.prexigi — This is a present passive infinitive acting as the predicate in an accusative-and-infinitive construction, where the auxiliary verb 'posse' (to be able to) is ellipted, meaning '[they] can be demanded'.
  3. §22.3.27.prin fraudem legis — Meaning 'in fraud of the law' or 'to evade the law'. It refers to an act of evasion attempting to transfer property under the guise of 'repayment of a debt' rather than a legacy, in order to circumvent the limitations imposed by law (such as those restricting testamentary capacity).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §22.3.27.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:22.3.27.pr

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