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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §28.1.25.pr

Validity of a Will When the Testator Loses Speech Midst Execution

Passage 4115 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The validity of a testament is discussed where the testator becomes dumb after naming the first heirs but before naming the second, presenting the views of Servius, Labeo, and Javolenus.

[IAUOLENUS libro quinto posteriorum Labeonis. ] §28.1.25.prSi is, qui testamentum faceret, heredibus primis nuncupatis, priusquam secundos exprimeret heredes, obmutuisset, magis coepisse eum testamentum facere quam fecisse Uarus digestorum libro primo Seruium respondisse scripsit: itaque primos heredes ex eo testamento non futuros.
[JAVOLENUS in the fifth book of Epitomes of Labeo's Posterity.] Varus wrote in the first book of his Digests that Servius had answered that if a person, while making a testament, should become dumb after naming the first heirs but before expressing the second heirs, he had rather begun to make a testament than made one; and therefore the first heirs would not succeed under that testament.
Labeo tum hoc uerum esse existimat, si constaret uoluisse plures eum, qui testamentum fecisset, heredes pronuntiare: ego nec Seruium puto aliud sensisse.
Labeo thinks this to be true only if it were clear that the person who made the testament had wished to declare more heirs; I myself do not think that Servius held any other opinion.

Notes

  1. §28.1.25.prUarus digestorum libro primo Seruium respondisse scripsit — A double Accusative with Infinitive (AcI) construction. The subject of the main clause is Varus, and the direct object of his verb scripsit is Seruium respondisse. In turn, the content of the answer (respondisse) is expressed by another nested AcI clause, magis coepisse eum...
  2. §28.1.25.prnec Seruium puto aliud sensisse — The pronoun aliud refers to "anything different" from the reservation proposed by Labeo (i.e., that the rule applies only if it is clear that the testator intended to name more heirs). Javolenus interprets that Servius also answered under the same natural assumption that the testator intended to proceed to name second heirs, meaning their legal views are fundamentally in agreement.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §28.1.25.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:28.1.25.pr

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