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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §31.0.12.pr-31.0.12.1

Pecuniary Legacies and Legacies with an Uncertain Term

Passage 4738 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This text explains that an heir must pay a monetary legacy if the inheritance is solvent, even if the specific money is not among the testator's assets, and that a legacy with an uncertain term does not transmit to the legatee's heirs if the legatee dies before the heir.

[PAULUS libro secundo ad Uitellium. ] §31.0.12.prSi pecunia legata in bonis legantis non sit, soluendo tamen hereditas sit, heres pecuniam legatam dare compellitur siue de suo siue ex uenditione rerum hereditariarum siue unde uoluerit.
[PAULUS, in the second book to Vitellius.] If the bequeathed money is not among the assets of the testator, but the inheritance is nevertheless solvent, the heir is compelled to pay the bequeathed money, whether from his own property, from the sale of inherited things, or from wherever else he wishes.
§31.0.12.1Quod ita legatum est: 'heres cum morietur Lucio Titio dato decem', cum incerta die legatum est, ad heredes legatarii non pertinet, si uiuo herede decesserit.
What is bequeathed in this manner: 'When the heir dies, let him give ten to Lucius Titius,' since it is bequeathed with an uncertain day, does not pass to the heirs of the legatee if he dies while the heir is still living.

Notes

  1. §31.0.12.prsoluendo tamen hereditas sit — soluendo is the dative of the gerundive, forming the idiomatic expression soluendo esse meaning "to be solvent" or "to be capable of paying."
  2. §31.0.12.1cum incerta die legatum est — The cum clause here presents the reason or circumstance that the legacy was made with an uncertain day, which explains why it does not pass to the legatee's heirs.
  3. §31.0.12.1si uiuo herede decesserit — uiuo herede is an ablative absolute consisting of a noun and an adjective, meaning "while the heir is living." The unexpressed subject of decesserit is the legatee (legatarius).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §31.0.12.pr-31.0.12.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:31.0.12.pr-31.0.12.1

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