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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §30.1.92.pr-30.1.92.2

Restoration of Sold Trust Land and Inability to Perform

Passage 4688 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The jurists discuss the restoration of a tract of land left under a trust but sold with the beneficiary's consent to pay inherited debts, the validity of a legacy when a trust cannot be performed through no fault of the legatee, and the creation of trusts to be paid by potential intestate heirs of an impuberal son.

[IULIANUS libro trigesimo nono digestorum. ] §30.1.92.prSi fundum per fideicommissum relictum unus ex heredibus, excusso pretio secundum reditum eius fundi, mercatus sit propter aes alienum hereditarium praesente et adsignante eo, cui fideicommissum debebatur.
[JULIANUS, Digests, book 39.] If one of the co-heirs, because of an inherited debt, has purchased a tract of land left by way of trust, at a price calculated according to the revenue of that land, in the presence and with the signature of the person to whom the trust was due, it is held that not the land, but its price, ought to be restored.
placet non fundum, sed pretium eius restitui deberi. MARCELLUS notat: si fundum restituere malit heres, audiendum existimo.
MARCELLUS notes: if the heir should prefer to restore the land, I think he ought to be heard.
§30.1.92.1IULIANUS. Si Titio pecunia legata fuerit et eius fidei commissum, ut alienum seruum manumitteret, nec dominus eum uendere uelit, nihilo minus legatum capiet, quia per eum non stat, quominus fideicommissum praestet: nam et si mortuus fuisset seruus, a legato non summoueretur.
JULIANUS. If money has been bequeathed to Titius, and a trust is imposed on him to manumit a slave belonging to another, and the owner is unwilling to sell him, Titius will nonetheless take the legacy, because it is not his fault that he does not perform the trust; for even if the slave had died, Titius would not be excluded from the legacy.
§30.1.92.2Sicuti conceditur unicuique ab eo, ad quem legitima eius hereditas uel bonorum possessio peruentura est, fideicommissum dare, ita et ab eo, ad quem impuberis filii legitima hereditas uel bonorum possessio peruentura est, fideicommissa recte dabuntur.
Just as anyone is permitted to give a trust to be paid by the person to whom his own intestate inheritance or possession of goods is to come, so also trusts will be rightly given to be paid by the person to whom the intestate inheritance or possession of goods of an impuberal son is to come.

Notes

  1. §30.1.92.prexcusso pretio — The verb excutere (literally 'to shake out, examine') is used here in the sense of 'calculating' or 'ascertaining' the fair price. The phrase excusso pretio... forms an ablative absolute construction: 'the price having been calculated according to the revenue of that land.'
  2. §30.1.92.1per eum non stat, quominus — An idiomatic construction of the impersonal expression stat per aliquem, quominus... ('it is due to someone that ... not ...'). Its negative form here means 'it does not stand/depend on him (it is not his fault) that he does not perform the trust.'
  3. §30.1.92.2ab eo ... fideicommissum dare — The phrase ab eo ... dare is a legal expression meaning 'to give a trust to be paid by him' or 'to charge him with a trust.' The person who is to bear the burden of the trust (the future heir/possessor) is indicated by the preposition ab.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §30.1.92.pr-30.1.92.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:30.1.92.pr-30.1.92.2

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