Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §3.5.44.pr-3.5.44.2

Recovery of Expenses and Mistaken Payment of Estate Debts

Passage 616 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This passage regulates the recovery of useful expenditures through the action for business managed, the exemption of unconditionally freed slaves from accounting for past administration, and the applicability of the action for business managed when Titius pays estate debts under a mistaken belief about the heir's identity.

[IDEM libro quarto opinionum. ] §3.5.44.prQuae utiliter in negotia alicuius erogantur, in quibus est etiam sumptus honeste ad honores per gradus pertinentes factus, actione negotiorum gestorum peti possunt.
[THE SAME, Opinions, Book IV] What is usefully expended on another's affairs, in which is also included an expense respectably incurred for offices pertaining to successive steps, can be recovered by the action for business managed.
§3.5.44.1Qui pure testamento libertatem acceperunt, actus, quem uiuentibus dominis administrauerunt, rationem reddere non conpelluntur.
Those who have received freedom unconditionally by a will are not compelled to render an account of the administration which they conducted while their masters were alive.
§3.5.44.2Titius pecuniam creditoribus hereditariis soluit existimans sororem suam defuncto heredem testamento extitisse.
Titius paid money to the creditors of an estate, believing that his sister had become heir to the deceased by a will.
quamuis animo gerendi sororis negotia id fecisset, ueritate tamen filiorum defuncti, qui sui heredes patri sublato testamento erant, gessisset: quia aequum est in damno eum non uersari, actione negotiorum gestorum id eum petere placuit.
Although he did this with the intention of managing his sister's affairs, yet in reality he had managed those of the children of the deceased, who, the will being set aside, were the self-successors to their father; since it is equitable that he should not suffer loss, it was held that he could recover this by the action for business managed.

Notes

  1. 3.5.44.1actus — actus is the genitive singular (or accusative plural) of the fourth-declension noun actus. Here it functions as a limiting genitive modifying rationem ('account of the administration'). The relative pronoun quem is masculine accusative singular, referring back to actus (as genitive singular) and serving as the direct object of administrauerunt.
  2. 3.5.44.2gerendi sororis negotia — The genitive gerund gerendi governs the accusative plural phrase sororis negotia as its direct object. This construction of a gerund with a direct object is equivalent in meaning to the gerundive construction gerendorum sororis negotiorum.
  3. 3.5.44.2qui sui heredes patri sublato testamento erant — sublato testamento is an ablative absolute ('the will having been set aside'). patri is a dative of reference depending on sui heredes ('self-successors to their father'). The term sui heredes refers to heirs who were under the direct power (patria potestas) of the deceased at the time of death and became heirs by operation of law.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §3.5.44.pr-3.5.44.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:3.5.44.pr-3.5.44.2

Please note the AI-draft status of the translation and the date accessed.

Translation, notes and summary are AI-generated drafts, revised through reader feedback.