[GAIUS libro duodecimo ad legem Iuliam et Papiam. ] §31.0.55.prSi Titio et mihi eadem res legata fuerit et is die cedente legati decesserit me herede relicto et uel ex mea propria causa uel ex hereditaria legatum repudiauero, magis placere uideo partem defecisse.
[GAIUS in the twelfth book on the Lex Iulia et Papia.] If the same thing should be bequeathed to Titius and to me, and he should die when the right to the legacy vests, leaving me as his heir, and I should repudiate the legacy either on my own account or on account of the inheritance, I see that the opinion is more approved that the share is extinguished.
§31.0.55.1Si eo herede instituto, qui uel nihil uel non totum capere potest, seruo hereditario legatum fuerit, tractantibus nobis de capacitate uidendum est, utrum heredis an defuncti persona an neutrius spectari debeat.
If a legacy is given to a slave belonging to an inheritance, at a time when someone has been instituted heir who can take either nothing at all or not the whole, when we treat of capacity, we must see whether the persona of the heir, or that of the deceased, or that of neither, ought to be regarded.
et post multas uarietates placet, ut, quia nullus est dominus, in cuius persona de capacitate quaeri possit, sine ullo impedimento adquiratur legatum hereditati atque ob id omnimodo ad eum pertineat, quicumque postea heres exstiterit, secundum quod accipere potest: reliqua autem pars ad eos, qui iure uocantur, uenit.
And after many differences of opinion, it is settled that, because there is no master in whose person the question of capacity can be raised, the legacy is acquired by the inheritance without any impediment, and therefore belongs in any case to whoever subsequently becomes the heir, according to what he is capable of receiving; but the remaining part goes to those who are called by law.