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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §29.4.25.pr

Evading Legacies Through a Substituted Slave and Liability

Passage 4539 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Celsus discusses the liability of an heir who, to evade legacies, ordered his own substituted slave to accept the inheritance, ruling that he must pay both legacies while preserving his rights under the Lex Falcidia.

[CELSUS libro sexto decimo digestorum. ] §29.4.25.prCui seruus ipsius substitutus est, seruum suum adire iussit.
[CELSUS, in the sixteenth book of the Digests.] A person to whom his own slave had been substituted ordered his slave to accept.
si idcirco fecit, ne legata praestaret, utraque praestabit, et qua heres est et qua omissa causa testamenti possidet ex substitutione hereditatem, salua Falcidia ei seruata.
If he did this for the purpose of not paying the legacies, he shall pay both, both in the capacity where he is heir, and where, having omitted the cause of the will, he possesses the inheritance under the substitution, saving the rights under the Lex Falcidia preserved for him.

Notes

  1. §29.4.25.prCui — Dative of the relative pronoun whose antecedent (the dative demonstrative `ei`) is omitted. This omitted antecedent serves as the subject of the main verb `iussit`.
  2. §29.4.25.pradire — An absolute use of the infinitive with the omission of the direct object `hereditatem` (inheritance), a standard formulaic expression in legal texts meaning 'to accept or enter upon the inheritance'.
  3. §29.4.25.prqua — Correlative use of the relative adverb `qua` ('both in so far as... and in so far as...'), coordinating the two distinct capacities or characters under which the liability to pay the legacies is imposed.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §29.4.25.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:29.4.25.pr

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