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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §31.0.84.pr

Delay in Fideicommissary Freedom and Accession of Trust

Passage 4813 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Paulus discusses a case where a slave is bequeathed freedom and additional property via a trust, arguing that if there is a delay in granting freedom, a delay is also deemed to have occurred for the trust property, and acquisitions made in the interim must be restored to him.

[PAULUS libro uicesimo primo quaestionum. ] §31.0.84.prSi quis seruo suo fideicommissam libertatem reliquit et aliud quid adscripsit: quidam dicunt, quia placebat ab herede eum manumitti debere, futurum esse, ut non admittatur ad fideicommissum: sed hoc iniquum est.
[PAULUS, from the twenty-first book of questions.] If anyone has left to his slave freedom by way of a trust and has written down something else in addition: some say that, because it was agreed that he ought to be manumitted by the heir, the result would be that he is not admitted to the trust; but this is unjust.
in huiusmodi enim persona utriusque quodammodo dies cessit et libertatis et pecuniae petendae, adeo ut putem, si mora fiat praestandae libertati, etiam fideicommisso moram uideri factam et usurarum onus accedere: nam et cetera quae medio tempore adquisiit domino, dum moratur praestare libertatem, eidem restitui oportere rectissime responsum est.
For in a person of this kind, in a certain way, the day has yielded for both freedom and for claiming the money, so much so that I think that, if a delay occurs in granting freedom, a delay is also deemed to have been made in respect of the trust, and the burden of interest is added. For it has been most correctly answered that also all other things which he acquired for his master in the meantime, while the master delays granting freedom, ought to be restored to him.

Notes

  1. §31.0.84.prplacebat — Used impersonally, with the accusative with infinitive clause `ab herede eum manumitti debere` (that he ought to be manumitted by the heir) serving as its subject. Here, `placere` means "to be accepted as a legal opinion" or "to be agreed upon."
  2. §31.0.84.prdies cessit — The perfect tense of the Roman legal technical term `dies cedit` (the day yields, i.e., the right vests), indicating that the beneficiary of the legacy definitively acquired the right at the time of the testator's death.
  3. §31.0.84.pret libertatis et pecuniae petendae — A parallel genitive phrase specifying `utriusque` (of both). The gerundive `petendae` (to be claimed) agrees in gender, number, and case with the nearest noun `pecuniae` (of money), but semantically applies to both `libertatis` (of freedom) and `pecuniae`.
  4. §31.0.84.prpraestandae libertati — A gerundive construction where the gerundive `praestandae` agrees with the noun `libertati`, in the dative case. It means "to the granting of freedom" and functions as a dative qualifying the noun `mora` (or the phrase `mora fiat`).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §31.0.84.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:31.0.84.pr

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