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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §30.1.97.pr

Reduction under the Lex Falcidia and Alternative Trusts

Passage 4693 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section discusses the scope of performance when a trustee is asked to deliver either a bequeathed slave (which has been partially reduced due to the Lex Falcidia) or their own slave.

[IDEM libro quadragesimo secundo digestorum. ] §30.1.97.prSi mihi Stichus legatus esset fideique meae commissum, ut aut Stichum aut Pamphilum meum seruum redderem, et in Sticho aliquid ex legato propter legem Falcidiam perdidissem, necesse habebo aut Pamphilum seruum meum totum Titio dare aut eam partem Stichi, quam legatorum nomine accepero.
[THE SAME, from the forty-second book of the Digests.] If Stichus had been bequeathed to me, and a trust had been imposed on my good faith to deliver either Stichus or my own slave Pamphilus, and I had lost some part of Stichus out of the legacy because of the Lex Falcidia, I shall be obliged either to give my slave Pamphilus as a whole to Titius, or to give that part of Stichus which I shall have received under the name of the legacy.

Notes

  1. 30.1.97.prfideique meae commissum — The verb esset is omitted after commissum, which stands in parallel with the preceding legatus esset. The phrase fidei alicuius committere (to commit to someone's good faith) is a standard formula for creating a testamentary trust (fideicommissum).
  2. 30.1.97.prut aut Stichum aut Pamphilum meum seruum redderem — The objects of redderem (to deliver or hand over) are either the bequeathed slave Stichum or the trustee's own slave Pamphilum (marked by meum seruum to denote pre-existing ownership). This establishes an alternative obligation on the trustee.
  3. 30.1.97.prnecesse habebo — While the conditional clauses (protasis) use pluperfect subjunctives (legatus esset, perdidissem) to state a past or hypothetical condition, the main clause (apodosis) uses the future indicative (necesse habebo). This mixed conditional structure emphasizes the certainty of the legal consequence or obligation once the condition is met.
  4. 30.1.97.pream partem Stichi, quam legatorum nomine accepero — The verb accepero is in the future perfect tense, referring to the part of Stichus that the trustee will have actually received after the deduction made under the Lex Falcidia (which secured at least one-quarter of the estate for the heir, proportionally reducing legacies exceeding that limit). In an alternative obligation, if one of the alternatives (Stichus) is legally reduced, the trustee retains the choice either to deliver that reduced portion or to deliver the other alternative (Pamphilus) in its entirety (totum).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §30.1.97.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:30.1.97.pr

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