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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §31.0.17.pr-31.0.17.1

Devolution upon Beneficiary's Prior Death and Legacies to Unspecified Persons

Passage 4743 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section addresses the devolution of a legacy when the third-party recipient dies before the legatee can transfer it, and the heir's obligation to pay the full legacy to all eligible freedmen when no specific recipient was chosen.

[MARCELLUS libro decimo digestorum. ] §31.0.17.prSi quis Titio decem legauerit et rogauerit, ut ea restituat Maeuio, Maeuiusque fuerit mortuus, Titii commodo cedit, non heredis, nisi dumtaxat ut ministrum Titium elegit.
[MARCELLUS, in the tenth book of his digests.] If anyone has bequeathed ten to Titius and has requested him to restore them to Maevius, and Maevius has died, this falls to the benefit of Titius, not of the heir, unless indeed he chose Titius merely as an agent.
idem est et si ponas usum || fructum legatum.
The same is true even if you suppose a usu || fruct to have been bequeathed.
§31.0.17.1Si heres damnatus esset decem uni ex libertis dare et non constituerit cui daret, heres omnibus eadem decem praestare cogendus est.
If the heir has been condemned to give ten to one of the freedmen and has not determined to whom he should give them, the heir must be compelled to pay the same ten to all of them.

Notes

  1. 31.0.17.prTitii commodo cedit — commodo is the dative or ablative of the noun commodum ("benefit"), forming the idiomatic phrase cedere alicuius commodo, meaning "to accrue to someone's benefit."
  2. 31.0.17.prnisi dumtaxat ut ministrum Titium elegit — The subject of elegit is the testator (quis in the conditional clause). ut ministrum ("as an agent/intermediary") indicates an exceptional case where the testator intended Titius merely as a conduit for transfer, in which case the legacy fails and reverts to the heir.
  3. 31.0.17.1uni ex libertis — Refers to "one of the freedmen" in an unspecified manner, as clarified by the subsequent clause non constituerit cui daret ("and has not determined to whom he should give"), indicating that the legacy was left to an unnamed individual among the group.
  4. 31.0.17.1omnibus eadem decem praestare — eadem decem ("the same ten") means that the heir is obliged to pay ten to "all of them" (omnibus) individually, rather than dividing a single sum of ten among all the freedmen.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §31.0.17.pr-31.0.17.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:31.0.17.pr-31.0.17.1

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