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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §31.0.50.pr-31.0.50.2

Substitution of Legatees and Legacies of Alternative Debts

Passage 4777 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This chunk discusses the admissibility of substitution for legatees and in donations mortis causa, the treatment of a legacy concerning an alternative obligation, and the legatee's rights when a debt to be collected from a third party is bequeathed.

[MARCELLUS libro uicesimo octauo digestorum. ] §31.0.50.prUt heredibus substitui potest, ita etiam legatariis.
[MARCELLUS, in the twenty-eighth book of the Digests.] Just as a substitute can be appointed for heirs, so also can it be done for legatees.
uideamus, an idem fieri possit et cum mortis causa donabitur, ut id promittat ille alteri, si ipse capere non poterit: quod magis est, quia in posterioris quoque persona donatio confertur.
Let us see whether the same can be done when a donation mortis causa is made, so that the donee promises it to another if he himself cannot take it; which is the better opinion, because a donation is conferred also on the person of the latter.
§31.0.50.1Si Titius mihi Stichum aut decem debeat et legauero tibi Stichum quem mihi debet, placet exstingui legatum decem solutis: et si diuersis alii decem, alii Stichus legatus fuerit, ex euentu solutionis legatum ualet.
If Titius owes me Stichus or ten, and I bequeath to you Stichus whom he owes me, it is held that the legacy is extinguished if the ten is paid; and if to different persons, to one ten and to another Stichus is bequeathed, the legacy is valid according to the outcome of the payment.
§31.0.50.2Cum ita legatum est: 'quantam pecuniam heres meus a Titio exegerit, tantam Maeuio dato', si sub condicione legatum est, antequam exacta pecunia sit, legatarius agere non potest: quod si statim dies legati cedit, ut Publicius recte putat, legatarius agere potest, ut actiones praestentur.
When a legacy is made in this way: "Let my heir give Maevius as much money as my heir shall have collected from Titius," if the legacy is conditional, the legatee cannot sue before the money is collected; but if the right to the legacy vests immediately, as Publicius rightly thinks, the legatee can sue for the transfer of the actions.

Notes

  1. 31.0.50.prquod magis est — An idiomatic expression indicating an affirmative answer to the preceding indirect question "whether it is possible (an...possit)", understood as an ellipse of quod magis est uerum (which is more correct) or similar.
  2. 31.0.50.1ex euentu solutionis legatum ualet — Refers to the fact that, depending on the eventual outcome (ex euentu) of the debtor's performance of the alternative obligation (Stichus or ten), the legacy to one person becomes definitively valid, while the legacy to the other is extinguished.
  3. 31.0.50.2ut actiones praestentur — The conjunction ut introduces a noun clause expressing the purpose or the content of the claim of agere potest (can sue), indicating that the lawsuit is brought to demand that the actions (rights of action) held by the heir for collecting the debt be transferred or surrendered (praestentur) to the legatee.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §31.0.50.pr-31.0.50.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:31.0.50.pr-31.0.50.2

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