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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §24.1.44.pr

Gifts of Husband's Property by a Third Party and Usucaption

Passage 3556 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

On the validity of usucaption when a third party unknowingly donates the husband's property to the wife. If the husband discovers this and tacitly permits it, it is treated as a prohibited donation between spouses, and the possession is interrupted.

[NERATIUS libro quinto membranarum. ] §24.1.44.prSi extraneus rem uiri ignorans eius esse ignoranti uxori, ac ne uiro quidem sciente eam suam esse, donauerit, mulier recte eam usucapiet.
[NERATIUS in the fifth book of parchments.] If a third party, not knowing that a thing belongs to a husband, should donate it to his wife who is also ignorant of this, and without even the husband knowing that it is his own, the wife will rightfully acquire it by usucaption.
idemque iuris erit, si is, qui in potestate uiri erat, credens se patrem familias esse uxori patris donauerit.
The same rule of law will apply if a person who was in the power of a husband, believing himself to be the head of a family, should donate to his father's wife.
sed si uir rescierit suam rem esse, priusquam usucapiatur, uindicareque eam poterit nec uolet et hoc et mulier nouerit, interrumpetur possessio, quia transiit in causam ab eo factae donationis.
But if the husband, before it is acquired by usucaption, discovers that the thing is his own, and is able to reclaim it but does not wish to do so, and the wife also knows this, the possession will be interrupted, because it has passed into the category of a donation made by him.
ipsius mulieris scientia propius est, ut nullum adquisitioni dominii eius adferat impedimentum: non enim omnimodo uxores ex bonis uirorum, sed ex causa donationis ab ipsis factae adquirere prohibitae sunt.
It is more correct to hold that the knowledge of the wife herself brings no impediment to her acquisition of ownership; for wives are not prohibited from acquiring from the property of their husbands in every possible way, but only from acquiring on account of a donation made by the husbands themselves.

Notes

  1. 24.1.44.prrem uiri ignorans eius esse — In the accusative with infinitive clause [eam] eius esse (that it belongs to him), which acts as the object of the participle ignorans, the genitive pronoun eius refers back to the preceding uiri (the husband).
  2. 24.1.44.prne uiro quidem sciente eam suam esse — The phrase ne uiro quidem sciente is an ablative absolute construction, where the accusative with infinitive clause eam suam esse (that it was his own) serves as the object of the participle sciente. The reflexive suam refers back to uiro, the logical subject of the participle.
  3. 24.1.44.prpropius est, ut — The phrase propius est (it is closer to the truth, more correct) is an impersonal expression that takes the ut clause as its substantive subject.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §24.1.44.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:24.1.44.pr

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