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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §34.2.15.pr

Ownership of Gold and Silver Subject to a Restitution Trust

Passage 5174 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

In a case where a testator bequeathed gold and silver articles to a woman with a trust to restore them to his slaves upon her death, the question arose whether only the usufruct was bequeathed, and it was answered that the ownership was bequeathed subject to the trust.

[SCAEUOLA libro quinto decimo digestorum. ] §34.2.15.prSpecies auri et argenti Seiae legauit et ab ea petit in haec uerba: 'a te, Seia, peto, ut quidquid tibi specialiter in auro argento legaui, id cum morieris reddas restituas illi et illi uernis meis: quarum rerum usus fructus dum uiues tibi sufficiet': quaesitum est, an usus fructus auri et argenti solus legatariae debeatur.
[SCAEUOLA, in his fifteenth book of the Digests.] A testator bequeathed articles of gold and silver to Seia, and made a request of her in the following words: "I request of you, Seia, that whatever I have specifically bequeathed to you in gold and silver, you return and restore it, when you die, to so-and-so and so-and-so, my home-born slaves; the usufruct of which things will suffice for you as long as you live." The question was asked whether only the usufruct of the gold and silver was due to the legatee.
respondit uerbis quae proponerentur proprietatem legatam addito onere fideicommissi.
He replied that, according to the words which were proposed, the ownership had been bequeathed, with the burden of a trust added.

Notes

  1. §34.2.15.prproprietatem legatam — Accusative with infinitive construction (with `esse` omitted) functioning as the direct object of the main verb `respondit`, meaning "that ownership had been bequeathed." Although the phrase "the usufruct will suffice" appeared in the text of the legacy, raising the question of whether only the usufruct was given, the response determined that the ownership itself was bequeathed, subject to the burden (`onus`) of a trust (`fideicommissum`) to restore it after death.
  2. §34.2.15.prilli et illi — Doubled dative singular forms of the demonstrative pronoun `ille`, used as a formulaic placeholder in legal texts to represent specific names ("to so-and-so and so-and-so").

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §34.2.15.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:34.2.15.pr

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