Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §31.0.73.pr

Claim for Bequest of Unborn Child after Buying Mother

Passage 4800 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Papinian's response that if a child to be born of Pamphila is bequeathed to a legatee who subsequently purchases Pamphila and she gives birth in his possession, the child is not acquired by lucrative title, and the legatee can claim under the will the portion of the purchase price corresponding to the child's value.

[IDEM libro uicesimo tertio quaestionum. ] §31.0.73.prSi quod ex Pamphila nascetur legatum mihi fuerit et ego Pamphilam emam eaque apud me sit enixa, ratione summa responsum est non ex causa lucratiua partum intellegi meum factum ideoque petendum ex testamento, tamquam istum emissem, ut scilicet pretii contributione facta consequar tantum, quanti puerum deducta matris aestimatione constitisse mihi iudex in causa legati datus aestimauerit.
[BY THE SAME AUTHOR, in the twenty-third book of Questions.] If a child to be born of Pamphila has been bequeathed to me, and I purchase Pamphila, and she gives birth while in my possession, it has been answered on the highest legal principle that the offspring is not understood to have become mine by a lucrative title, and therefore a claim must be made under the will, as if I had purchased the child itself; namely, so that, a division of the price having been made, I may recover as much as the judge appointed for the case of the legacy estimates the boy to have cost me, after deducting the valuation of the mother.

Notes

  1. §31.0.73.prnon ex causa lucratiua partum intellegi meum factum — An infinitive clause depending on `responsum est`. `intellegi` is the passive infinitive, whose subject is `partum`, with `meum factum (esse)` as its predicate. Since the legatee purchased the mother, the child born in his possession is acquired by an onerous title (purchase) rather than a lucrative title (legacy).
  2. §31.0.73.prquanti puerum deducta matris aestimatione constitisse mihi — `quanti` is a genitive of value/price modifying `constitisse` (from `consto`, meaning 'to cost'). The phrase `puerum ... constitisse mihi` is an accusative with infinitive clause functioning as the object of `aestimauerit`. It describes the legal-technical process of calculating the effective price paid for the unborn child by deducting the valuation of the mother (`deducta matris aestimatione`, ablative absolute) from the total purchase price.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §31.0.73.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:31.0.73.pr

Please note the AI-draft status of the translation and the date accessed.

Translation, notes and summary are AI-generated drafts, revised through reader feedback.