[IDEM libro tricesimo primo digestorum. ] §29.4.22.prSi in testamento ita scriptum fuerit: 'Titius heres esto: si Titius heres erit, Maeuius heres esto' et Titius omissa causa testamenti hereditatem legitimam possederit, Maeuio aduersus eum petitio hereditatis dari non debet pro parte, quam habiturus esset, si testamenti causa omissa non fuisset.
[THE SAME, in the thirty-first book of the Digests.] If it has been written in a will as follows: "Let Titius be heir; if Titius is heir, let Maeuius be heir," and Titius, having set aside the cause of the will, possesses the intestate inheritance, a petition for inheritance ought not to be granted to Maeuius against him for the share which he would have had if the cause of the will had not been set aside.
cum enim omisso testamento hereditas possidetur, legatorum quidem et libertatium ratio habenda est, quia aliter quam ab herede dari non potuerunt: hereditatis uero quae ita data est rationem habere praetor non debet: sua enim culpa testator sub hac condicione hereditatis partem dedit, quam potuit pure dare.
For when an inheritance is possessed after setting aside the will, account must indeed be taken of legacies and grants of freedom, because they could not have been given otherwise than by an heir; but the praetor ought not to take account of an inheritance which was given in this manner, for it was by his own fault that the testator gave under this condition a share of the inheritance which he could have given unconditionally.
§29.4.22.1Quare et si ita scriptum fuisset: 'Titius heres esto: quisquis mihi ex supra scriptis heres erit, Stichus liber heresque esto' et Titius omisso testamento hereditatem possideat, libertatem praetor Stichi tueri non debet nec hereditatis petitionem ei dare.
Therefore, even if it had been written as follows: "Let Titius be heir; whoever of those written above shall be my heir, let Stichus be free and heir," and Titius, having set aside the will, possesses the inheritance, the praetor ought not to protect the freedom of Stichus, nor grant him a petition for inheritance.
§29.4.22.2Si quis hoc modo testamentum scripserit: 'Titius heres esto: si Titius heres non erit, Maeuius heres esto: quisquis mihi ex supra scriptis heres erit, Maeuio, si mihi heres non erit, centum dato', deinde Titius omisso testamento legitimam hereditatem possideat, an Maeuio, cuius in potestate fuit, ut ex substitutione adeundo totam hereditatem haberet, legatorum actio dari debeat, quaeritur.
If anyone has written a will in this manner: "Let Titius be heir; if Titius is not heir, let Maeuius be heir; whoever of those written above shall be my heir, let him give one hundred to Maeuius, if he is not my heir," and then Titius, having set aside the will, possesses the intestate inheritance, the question is raised whether an action for legacies ought to be granted to Maeuius, in whose power it was to have the whole inheritance by entering upon it under the substitution.
et placet dari, quia nihil prohibet Maeuium iustam causam habuisse, propter quam nollet negotiis hereditariis implicari.
And the opinion is approved that it should be granted, because nothing prevents Maeuius from having had a just cause for not wishing to be involved in the business of the inheritance.