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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §30.1.12.pr-30.1.12.3

Acquisition of Joint Legacies and Testator Intention

Passage 4608 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This chunk discusses the choice of legacy when a co-legatee becomes the heir of the other (12.pr), the validity of a legacy with an impossible time limit for performance (12.1), the capacity to bequeath to slaves (12.2), and the chronological priority of writings and the supremacy of intention in testaments (12.3).

[POMPONIUS libro tertio ad Sabinum. ] §30.1.12.prSi mihi et tibi eadem res legata fuerit, deinde die legati cedente heres tibi exstitero, liberum mihi esse Labeo ait, ex meo legato an ex eo, quod tibi heres sim, adquiram legatum: si uoluero, eam rem ex meo legato ad me pertinere, ut tota mea sit, ex hereditario legato petere eam posse.
[POMPONIUS, Book 3 on Sabinus.] If the same thing is bequeathed to me and to you, and subsequently, when the day of the legacy yields, I become your heir, Labeo says that it is free for me to choose whether I acquire the legacy from my own legacy or from that which belongs to you as your heir: if I wish that the thing belong to me from my own legacy so that it is entirely mine, I can claim it from the inherited legacy.
§30.1.12.1Proculus ait, si quis seruos quos Gadibus haberet eo testamento, quod Romae moriens fecerit, triduo quo mortuus fuerit heredem dare mihi damnauerit, ratum esse legatum et angustias temporis nihil legato nocere.
Proculus says that if anyone, in a will made while dying at Rome, should charge his heir to give me within three days of his death the slaves whom he had at Gades, the legacy is valid, and the shortness of the time does not at all harm the legacy.
§30.1.12.2Regula iuris ciuilis est, quae efficit, ut quibus ipsis legare possumus, eorum quoque seruis legare possumus.
It is a rule of civil law which brings it about that to whomever we can bequeath directly, we can also bequeath to their slaves.
§30.1.12.3In legatis nonissimae scripturae ualent, quia mutari causa praecedentis legati uel die uel condicione uel in totum ademptione potest.
In legacies, the most recent writings are valid, because the cause of a preceding legacy can be changed either by a day, by a condition, or entirely by revocation.
sed si sub alia et alia condicione legatum ademptum est, nouissima ademptio spectanda est.
But if a legacy is revoked under different conditions, the most recent revocation must be regarded.
interdum tamen in legatis non posterior, sed praecedens scriptura ualet: nam si ita scripsero: 'quod Titio infra legauero, id neque do neque lego', quod infra legatum erit, non ualebit.
Sometimes, however, in legacies, it is not the later but the preceding writing that is valid: for if I write thus: 'what I shall bequeath below to Titius, I neither give nor bequeath', that which is bequeathed below will not be valid.
nam et eum sermonem, quo praesentia legata data in diem proferuntur, ad postea quoque scripta legata pertinere placuit.
For it has also been decided that the speech by which present legacies given are postponed to a future day also applies to legacies written afterward.
uoluntas ergo facit, quod in testamento scriptum ualeat.
Therefore, it is the will that causes what is written in a testament to be valid.

Notes

  1. 30.1.12.prdie legati cedente — An ablative absolute containing a present participle, indicating time. Legally, it refers to the arrival of the "dies cedens" (the day the right to the legacy vests).
  2. 30.1.12.prex meo legato an ex eo, quod tibi heres sim, adquiram legatum — An alternative indirect question clause introduced by `an` (with the subjunctive present `adquiram`), functioning substantively to explain the content of the adjective `liberum`. The clause `quod... sim` is a subjunctive clause in apposition with `eo`.
  3. 30.1.12.3quod Titio infra legauero — A relative clause introduced by the relative pronoun `quod` (with `id` as its antecedent). The verb `legauero` is in the future perfect indicative, expressing a future action to be completed before the main action.
  4. 30.1.12.3quod in testamento scriptum ualeat — A noun clause functioning as the object of `facit`. The subjunctive present `ualeat` is used, where the `quod` clause serves a function similar to an `ut` clause of result or purpose in classical Latin.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §30.1.12.pr-30.1.12.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:30.1.12.pr-30.1.12.3

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