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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §34.3.1.pr-34.3.1.1

Legacies to Debtors and Bequests of Pledged Property

Passage 5201 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This passage discusses the validity of bequests to debtors, and the legal effect and interpretation of the testator's intent when a creditor bequeaths a pledged object to the debtor.

[ULPIANUS libro uicesimo primo ad Sabinum. ] §34.3.1.prOmnibus debitoribus ea quae debent recte legantur, licet domini eorum sint.
[ULPIANUS in the twenty-first book on Sabinus.] To all debtors, what they owe is legally bequeathed, even if they are their masters.
§34.3.1.1Iulianus scripsit, si res pignori data legetur debitori a creditore, ualere legatum habereque eum actionem, ut pignus recipiat, priusquam pecuniam soluat.
Iulianus wrote that if a thing given in pledge is bequeathed to the debtor by the creditor, the bequest is valid, and he has an action to recover the pledge before he pays the money.
sic autem loquitur Iulianus, quasi debitum non debeat lucrari: sed si alia testantis uoluntas fuit, et ad hoc peruenietur exemplo luitionis.
But Iulianus speaks in this way as if the debtor ought not to gain the debt; however, if the intention of the testator was otherwise, this result also will be reached by the analogy of release.

Notes

  1. §34.3.1.prlicet domini eorum sint — The subject of the subjunctive 'sint' is the testators implied by the context, and 'eorum' refers to 'debitoribus' (the debtors, who might be under the power of their masters). Thus, it means 'even if they [the testators] are their [the debtors'] masters'.
  2. §34.3.1.1quasi debitum non debeat lucrari — The subject of 'debeat' is the debtor ('eum' in the previous clause), and 'debitum' is the object of the deponent verb 'lucrari' (to gain, acquire). It explains Julianus's interpretation which distinguishes the return of the pledge from the discharge of the debt itself ('as if [the debtor] ought not to gain [the release of] the debt').

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §34.3.1.pr-34.3.1.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:34.3.1.pr-34.3.1.1

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