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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §28.5.65.pr

Institution of a Posthumous Person's Slave as Heir

Passage 4244 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Citing Labeo, the text argues that the slave of a person born after the testator's death can be instituted as heir, using the analogy of an inheritance slave before the acceptance of the inheritance.

[IDEM libro septimo epistularum. ] §28.5.65.prEius seruum, qui post mortem meam natus erit, heredem institui posse Labeo frequenter scribit idque uerum esse manifesto argumento comprobat: quia seruus hereditarius, priusquam adeatur hereditas, institui heres potest, quamuis is testamenti facti tempore nullius sit.
[THE SAME, from the seventh book of Letters.] Labeo frequently writes that the slave of a person who shall be born after my death can be instituted as heir, and he proves this to be true by a clear argument: because a slave belonging to an inheritance, before the inheritance is entered upon, can be instituted as heir, although at the time the testament is made he belongs to no one.

Notes

  1. 28.5.65.prEius seruum, qui post mortem meam natus erit — The antecedent of the relative pronoun qui is the genitive demonstrative pronoun eius (forming the construction eius... qui... "of him who..."), not the accusative seruum. Thus, it is interpreted as "the slave of a person who shall be born after my death," rather than "the slave, who shall be born after my death, of him." This fits the legal issue of whether a slave of an unborn (and thus non-existent, hence "nobody's") person can be instituted as heir.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §28.5.65.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:28.5.65.pr

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