[LABEO libro secundo posteriorum a Iauoleno epitomatorum. ] §28.7.20.prMulier, quae uiro suo ex dote promissam pecuniam debebat, uirum heredem ita instituerat, si eam pecuniam, quam doti promisisset, neque petisset neque exegisset. puto, si uir denuntiasset ceteris heredibus per se non stare, quo minus acceptum faceret id quod ex dote sibi deberetur, statim eum heredem futurum.
[LABEO, in the second book of his Posthumous Works, epitomized by Javolenus.] A woman, who owed her husband money promised as a dowry, had appointed her husband as heir under the condition: "if he should neither demand nor exact that money which she had promised for the dowry." I think that, if the husband had declared to the other heirs that it was not his fault that he did not formalize the release of what was owed to him from the dowry, he would immediately become heir.
quod si solus heres institutus esset in tali conditione. dicione, nihilo minus puto statim eum heredem futurum, quia ἀδύνατος condicio pro non scripta accipienda est.
But if he had been appointed sole heir under such a condition, I think that he would none the less immediately become heir, because an impossible condition must be accepted as if it had not been written.
§28.7.20.1Si quis hereditarium seruum iussus est manumittere et heres esse, quamuis, si manumiserit, nihil agat, tamen heres erit: uerum est enim eum manumississe: sed post aditionem libertas seruo data secundum uoluntatem testatoris conualescit.
If someone is ordered to manumit a slave of the inheritance and to be heir, although if he manumits the slave he achieves nothing, nevertheless he will be heir; for it is true that he has manumitted him; but after the acceptance of the inheritance, the freedom granted to the slave becomes valid in accordance with the will of the testator.
§28.7.20.2Si quis te heredem ita instituit, si se heredem instituisses aut quid sibi legasses, nihil interest, quo gradu is a te heres institutus uel quid ei legatum sit, dummodo aliquo gradu id te fecisse probes.
If someone has appointed you heir under the condition "if you should have appointed him heir or bequeathed something to him," it does not matter at what rank he was appointed heir by you or what was bequeathed to him, provided that you prove you have done so at some rank.