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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §28.5.58.pr

Institution of a Slave with Freedom and a Substitute Heir

Passage 4237 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

If an insolvent testator institutes a slave as heir with freedom and names a free person as a substitute, the process must begin with the substitute, since the Lex Aelia Sentia preserves the slave's freedom only if no other heir can take under the will.

[IDEM libro quinquagesimo septimo ad edictum. ] §28.5.58.prSi is qui soluendo non est seruum cum libertate heredem instituerit et liberum substituerit, ante incipiendum erit a substituto: lex enim Aelia Sentia ita demum ei, qui in fraudem creditorum heres institutus est conseruat libertatem, si nemo alius ex eo testamento heres esse potest.
[THE SAME, On the Edict, Book LVII.] If a person who is insolvent institutes a slave as heir with his freedom, and substitutes a free person, we must begin with the substitute first; for the Lex Aelia Sentia only preserves freedom for one who has been instituted heir to defraud creditors, if no one else can be heir under that will.

Notes

  1. 28.5.58.prsoluendo — This is the dative of the gerundive, which, when combined with the verb 'esse', denotes capacity or fitness for payment. Here it functions as a predicative dative modifying the relative pronoun 'qui', so that 'soluendo non est' means 'is insolvent (is not capable of paying)'.
  2. 28.5.58.principiendum erit a substituto — An impersonal passive construction using the gerund (or neuter singular of the gerundive). The prepositional phrase 'a substituto' does not indicate the agent, but rather the starting point: 'one must begin with (from) the substitute'. It means that inquiry must first be made as to whether the substitute will accept the inheritance.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §28.5.58.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:28.5.58.pr

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