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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §31.0.80.pr

Direct Transfer of Ownership to the Legatee by Legacy

Passage 4809 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

It explains the principle that the transfer of ownership of a thing through a legacy occurs directly from the deceased's estate to the legatee, without ever becoming the property of the heir.

[IDEM libro primo definitionum. ] §31.0.80.prLegatum ita dominium rei legatarii facit, ut hereditas heredis res singulas.
[BY THE SAME AUTHOR, from the first book of definitions.] A legacy makes the ownership of a thing the legatee's, in the same way as an inheritance makes individual things the heir's.
quod eo pertinet, ut, si pure res relicta sit et legatarius non repudiauit defuncti uoluntatem, recta uia dominium, quod hereditatis fuit, ad legatarium transeat numquam factum heredis.
The effect of this is that, if a thing has been left unconditionally and the legatee has not rejected the will of the deceased, the ownership, which belonged to the inheritance, passes directly to the legatee, without ever having become the heir's.

Notes

  1. §31.0.80.prut hereditas heredis res singulas — The verb `facit` and the noun `dominium` are omitted from the preceding clause, to be understood as `ut hereditas [dominium] heredis res singulas [facit]` ('in the same way as the inheritance [makes] [the ownership] of individual things the heir's'). `heredis`, like `legatarii`, is a possessive genitive.
  2. §31.0.80.prnumquam factum heredis — `factum` is the neuter nominative singular of the perfect participle of the semi-deponent verb `fieri` ('to become'), agreeing with `dominium`, the subject of the main clause; thus, 'the ownership... never having become the heir's'. Although some interpret it as the noun `factum` ('act'), meaning 'without any act of the heir', the former interpretation is more suitable in the context of explaining the path of ownership transfer.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §31.0.80.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:31.0.80.pr

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