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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §33.4.5.pr

Limits on Delaying Dowry Legacies and Retentions

Passage 5007 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This text explains that when a dowry is bequeathed, the heir cannot delay payment based on gifts or expenses other than those necessary ones that reduce it by operation of law, distinguishing between the actual reduction of the dowry and its retention as security.

[MARCIANUS libro tertio regularum. ] §33.4.5.prDote relegata non est heres audiendus, si uelit ob donationes in mulierem factas solutionem differre uel ob impensas alias, quam quae ipso iure dotem minuunt: aliud est enim minorem esse factam dotem, quod per necessarias impensas accidit, aliud pignoris nomine retineri dotem ob ea, quae mulierem inuicem praestare aequum est.
[MARCIANUS, in the third book of Rules.] When a dowry has been bequeathed, the heir is not to be heard if he wishes to delay payment on account of donations made to the woman, or on account of expenses other than those which diminish the dowry by operation of law; for it is one thing for the dowry to have been made smaller, which happens through necessary expenses, and another for the dowry to be retained under the name of a pledge on account of those things which it is equitable for the woman in her turn to perform.

Notes

  1. §33.4.5.prnon est heres audiendus — A passive periphrastic construction using the gerundive audiendus, which functions as a legal idiom meaning 'the heir's claim or defense is not to be admitted or sustained in court.'
  2. §33.4.5.praliud est ... aliud ... — A correlative construction meaning 'one thing is ... another thing is ...,' used here to make a sharp legal distinction between the two subject infinitive clauses: minorem esse factam dotem (the reduction of the dowry itself) and retineri dotem (the retention of the dowry).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §33.4.5.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:33.4.5.pr

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