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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §29.4.17.pr

Lapse of Legacies by Renunciation and Relief for Trusts

Passage 4531 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

On the extinction of legacies when an heir discards a will and does not possess the inheritance, the remedy provided for trust inheritances, and its non-application to specific trusts.

[IDEM libro septimo decimo ad edictum prouinciale. ] §29.4.17.prSi quis omissa causa testamenti omnino eam hereditatem non possideat, excluduntur legatarii: nam liberum cuique esse debet etiam lucrosam hereditatem omittere, licet eo modo legata libertatesque intercidunt.
[THE SAME in the seventeenth book on the Provincial Edict.] If anyone, having discarded the basis of the will, does not possess that inheritance at all, the legatees are excluded: for it must be free for anyone to decline even a lucrative inheritance, although in this way legacies and manumissions perish.
sed in fideicommissariis hereditatibus id prouisum est, ut, si scriptus heres nollet adire hereditatem, iussu praetoris adeat et restituat: quod beneficium his, quibus singulae res per fideicommissum relictae sint, non magis tributum est quam legatariis.
But in the case of trust inheritances, it has been provided that, if the appointed heir is unwilling to enter upon the inheritance, he shall enter and restore it by order of the praetor: which benefit is no more granted to those to whom single things have been left by way of trust than to legatees.

Notes

  1. §29.4.17.promissa causa testamenti — An ablative absolute construction, expressing here either a condition or a cause ('having discarded the basis of the will' or 'by discarding the basis of the will').
  2. §29.4.17.prut, si scriptus heres nollet adire hereditatem, iussu praetoris adeat et restituat — A noun clause introduced by ut, explaining the content of the pronoun id. The verbs adeat and restituat are in the present subjunctive, corresponding to nollet (imperfect subjunctive) in the conditional si-clause.
  3. §29.4.17.prnon magis tributum est quam legatariis — A comparative construction 'non magis A quam B', meaning 'no more granted to A (those to whom single things are left) than to B (legatees)', thereby denying the benefit to both groups. 'legatariis' is a dative of recipient governed by 'tributum est'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §29.4.17.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:29.4.17.pr

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