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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §31.0.45.pr-31.0.45.2

Interpretation of Gender Terms and Renouncing Legacies

Passage 4772 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The jurist discusses the rules of interpretation regarding whether feminine terms in a legacy encompass males, and determines the status of rejecting conditional legacies as well as the validity of a marriage-conditioned legacy for an already married daughter.

[IDEM libro octauo ad Quintum Mucium. ] §31.0.45.prSi ita sit scriptum: 'filiabus meis centum aureos do', an et masculini generis et feminini liberis legatum uideatur? nam si ita scriptum esset: 'filiis meis hosce tutores do', responsum est etiam filiabus tutores datos esse.
[THE SAME in the eighth book on Quintus Mucius.] If it is written as follows: 'To my daughters I give a hundred gold pieces,' is the legacy deemed to be left to children of both the masculine and the feminine gender? For if it had been written as follows: 'To my sons I give these tutors,' it was answered that tutors were given also to the daughters.
quod non est ex contrario accipiendum, ut filiarum nomine etiam masculi contineantur: exemplo enim pessimum est feminino uocabulo etiam masculos contineri.
But this is not to be accepted in the reverse sense, so that males are also contained under the name of daughters; for it is a very bad precedent that males should also be contained under a feminine term.
§31.0.45.1Si sub condicione uel ex die certa nobis legatum sit, ante condicionem uel diem certum repudiare non possumus: nam nec pertinet ad nos, antequam dies ueniet uel condicio exsistat.
If a legacy is left to us under a condition or from a certain day, we cannot reject it before the condition is fulfilled or the certain day arrives; for neither does it belong to us before the day comes or the condition exists.
§31.0.45.2Si pater filiae suae testamento aureos tot heredem dare iusserit, ubi ea nupsisset, si filia nupta sit, cum testamentum fit, sed absente patre et ignorante, nihilo minus legatum debetur: si enim hoc pater non ignorabat, uidetur de aliis nuptiis sensisse.
If a father by his will has ordered his heir to give his daughter so many gold pieces when she marries, and if the daughter is already married when the will is made, but during the absence of the father and without his knowledge, the legacy is nevertheless due; for if the father was not ignorant of this, he is deemed to have had another marriage in mind.

Notes

  1. 31.0.45.pran et masculini generis et feminini liberis legatum uideatur? — The conjunction `an` introduces a direct question expressing doubt or highlighting a potential counter-argument, implying a negative answer. `liberis` serves as the dative complement of `legatum [esse] uideatur`.
  2. 31.0.45.prquod non est ex contrario accipiendum, ut — The relative pronoun `quod` at the beginning of the clause acts as a connective pointing back to the preceding decision. The subsequent `ut` clause explains the specific content or the result of this interpretation to be avoided.
  3. 31.0.45.1ex die certa — Refers to a legacy taking effect from a certain day (dies a quo). In Roman law, prior to the arrival of this date, the beneficiary does not yet possess an active right that can be rejected.
  4. 31.0.45.2absente patre et ignorante — An ablative absolute construction where the present participles `absente` and `ignorante` agree with `patre`, indicating the father's lack of presence and knowledge at the time the will was made as an attendant circumstance.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §31.0.45.pr-31.0.45.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:31.0.45.pr-31.0.45.2

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