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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §30.1.70.pr-30.1.70.3

Conditions of Compensation for Delivering Damaging Legacies

Passage 4666 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The author explains the legal principle that if a bequeathed object, such as a slave or a tract of land, causes damage or carries an encumbrance, the legatee must compensate for the damage or accept the object under the condition of restoring the original status.

[IDEM libro octauo decimo ad edictum prouinciale. ] §30.1.70.prSi seruus Titii furtum mihi fecerit, deinde Titius herede me instituto seruum tibi legauerit, non est iniquum talem seruum tibi tradi, qualis apud Titium fuit, id est ut me indemnem praestes furti nomine, quod is fecerit apud Titium.
[THE SAME, Book 18 on the Provincial Edict.] If a slave of Titius has committed a theft against me, and then Titius, having appointed me as his heir, bequeaths the slave to you, it is not unjust that such a slave be delivered to you in the same condition as he was with Titius; that is, that you secure me against loss on account of the theft which he committed while with Titius.
§30.1.70.1Nam et si fundus, qui meo fundo seruiebat, tibi legatus fuerit, non aliter a me tibi praestari debeat, quam ut pristinam seruitutem recipiam.
For even if a tract of land which owed a servitude to my land has been bequeathed to you, it ought not to be delivered by me to you otherwise than on the condition that I recover the former servitude.
§30.1.70.2Nec dissimile est ei qui mandato alicuius seruum emit uel ei qui seruum redhibet, qui omnes non aliter restituere seruum coguntur, quam ut ratio habeatur furti, quod ab eo seruo factum fuerit uel antequam negotium contraheretur uel postea.
Nor is it different in the case of one who buys a slave by the mandate of another, or one who returns a slave by redhibition; all of whom are not compelled to restore the slave otherwise than on the condition that account is taken of the theft committed by that slave either before the contract was entered into or afterwards.
§30.1.70.3Quare et si post aditam hereditatem seruus legatus heredi furtum fecerit, ita praestari debebit, ut ob hoc delictum quasi litis aestimatio a legatario sufferatur heredi.
Wherefore, even if after the entry into the inheritance the bequeathed slave commits a theft against the heir, he must be delivered in such a way that, on account of this delict, what is as it were the estimated value of the suit is borne by the legatee for the heir.

Notes

  1. 30.1.70.prherede me instituto — An ablative absolute construction consisting of the first-person pronoun `me` and `instituto` (perfect passive participle ablative of `instituo`), expressing the circumstance "myself having been appointed as heir."
  2. 30.1.70.1non aliter... quam ut — A restrictive construction meaning "not otherwise... than that" or "only on the condition that," where the `ut` clause takes the present subjunctive `recipiam`.
  3. 30.1.70.3quasi litis aestimatio — `litis aestimatio` literally refers to the monetary valuation of the property in dispute in a lawsuit. Here, it denotes the amount equivalent to the compensation for damages caused by the slave's theft (delict) against the heir.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §30.1.70.pr-30.1.70.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:30.1.70.pr-30.1.70.3

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