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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §30.1.124.pr

Per Capita Liability of Specifically Named Heirs for Legacies

Passage 4722 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section explains that when heirs are individually enumerated and charged with a legacy, they must owe equal shares per capita, rather than in proportion to their hereditary shares.

[NERATIUS libro quinto membranarum. ] §30.1.124.prSi heredes nominatim enumerati dare quid damnati sunt, propius est, ut uiriles partes debeant, quia personarum enumeratio hunc effectum habet, ut exaequentur in legato praestando, qui, si nominati non essent, hereditarias partes debituri essent.
[NERATIUS, Parchments, Book 5] If heirs enumerated by name are charged to give something, it is more reasonable that they should owe equal shares, because the enumeration of persons has this effect: that those who, if they had not been named, would have been liable to pay in proportion to their hereditary shares, are made equal in performing the legacy.

Notes

  1. §30.1.124.prpropius est — An impersonal expression using the neuter singular comparative of the adjective propius ("nearer"), meaning "it is more reasonable" or "it is closer to the law/truth." It takes a substantive ut-clause (ut... debeant) as its subject.
  2. §30.1.124.prqui, si nominati non essent, hereditarias partes debituri essent — The relative pronoun qui refers back to the implied subject of exaequentur (the heirs). Within this relative clause is embedded a past contrary-to-fact conditional construction: the protasis is si... non essent (pluperfect subjunctive), and the apodosis is debituri essent (future active participle with the imperfect subjunctive of sum), forming a periphrastic subjunctive equivalent to the pluperfect subjunctive.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §30.1.124.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:30.1.124.pr

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