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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §3.5.25.pr

Liability for an Insolvent Agent after an Invalidated Will

Passage 597 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

In a case where agents for a trust-inheritance split their management without authorization and the will was later declared invalid, Modestinus answers that any unrecoverable loss caused by an insolvent deceased agent falls upon the intestate heir.

[MODESTINUS libro primo responsorum. ] §3.5.25.prCum alicui ciuitati per fideicommissum restitui iussa esset hereditas, magistratus actores horum bonorum Titium et Seium et Gaium idoneos creauerunt: postmodum hi actores inter se diuiserunt administrationem bonorum idque egerunt sine auctoritate et sine consensu magistratuum.
[MODESTINUS, Opinions, book one] When an inheritance had been ordered to be restored to a certain city by a fideicommissum, the magistrates appointed Titius, Seius, and Gaius as suitable agents for these goods. Subsequently, these agents divided the administration of the goods among themselves and did so without the authority and without the consent of the magistrates.
post aliquod tempus testamentum, per quod restitui ciuitati hereditas fideicommissa esset, irritum probatum est pro tribunali atque ita ab intestato Sempronius legitimus heres defuncti extitit: sed ex his actoribus unus non soluendo decessit et nemo heres eius extitit.
After some time, the testament, by which the trust-bequeathed inheritance was to be restored to the city, was proved invalid before the tribunal, and thus Sempronius emerged as the intestate legitimate heir of the deceased. However, one of these agents died insolvent, and no one emerged as his heir.
quaero, si Sempronius conueniet actores horum bonorum, periculum inopis defuncti ad quos pertinet? Herennius Modestinus respondit, quod ab uno ex actoribus ob ea quae solus gessit negotiorum gestorum actione seruari non potest, ad damnum eius cui legitima hereditas quaesita est pertinere.
I ask, if Sempronius sues the agents of these goods, to whom does the risk of the insolvent deceased agent belong? Herennius Modestinus replied that whatever cannot be recovered from one of the agents by the action on business management, for those things which he managed alone, belongs to the loss of him to whom the legitimate inheritance was acquired.

Notes

  1. §3.5.25.prnon soluendo — The gerund dative of `soluere` (to pay) with the negative `non`. It is an idiomatic expression meaning "insolvent" or "incapable of paying." Here it modifies the subject `unus` as a predicate modifier.
  2. §3.5.25.prquod ab uno ex actoribus ... non potest, ad damnum ... pertinere — Indirect speech introduced by `respondit`. The relative clause `quod ... non potest` (that which cannot be recovered) functions as a noun clause acting as the subject accusative of the infinitive `pertinere`.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §3.5.25.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:3.5.25.pr

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