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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §33.4.8.pr

Legacy Instead of Dowry and Transmission to Wife's Heir

Passage 5010 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section explains that if a husband bequeaths money instead of a dowry consisting of slaves, and the slaves die during his lifetime, the right to claim the legacy is still rightly transmitted to the wife's heir after both the husband and wife have passed away.

[IDEM libro septimo responsorum. ] §33.4.8.prUir uxori, quae dotem in mancipiis habebat, pecuniam pro dote legauerat: uiuo uiro mancipiis mortuis uxor post uirum uita decessit.
[The same, from the seventh book of Opinions.] A husband had bequeathed to his wife, who had her dowry in the form of slaves, a sum of money instead of the dowry; while the husband was still living, the slaves died, and the wife departed this life after the husband.
ad heredem eius actio legati recte transmittitur, quoniam mariti uoluntas seruanda est.
The action for the legacy is rightly transmitted to her heir, since the will of the husband must be preserved.

Notes

  1. 33.4.8.pruiuo uiro mancipiis mortuis — Two ablative absolute constructions are used in succession. The first, `uiuo uiro` ("while the husband was alive"), sets the temporal frame, and the second, `mancipiis mortuis` ("the slaves having died"), denotes the specific event that took place. Together they describe the background circumstance: the slaves who formed the dowry died during the lifetime of the husband.
  2. 33.4.8.prad heredem eius — The genitive of the demonstrative pronoun `eius` refers to the immediate subject `uxor` (the wife). Therefore, the action for the legacy (`actio legati`) is transmitted (`transmittitur`) to the heir of the wife.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §33.4.8.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:33.4.8.pr

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