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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §34.3.9.pr

Exemption from Accounts and Claims for Balances or Fraud

Passage 5209 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Ulpian states that an heir forbidden to demand accounts is still permitted to demand outstanding balances and claims for fraud, and provides the necessary legal formula if the testator wishes to release these as well.

[ULPIANUS libro uicesimo quarto ad Sabinum. ] §34.3.9.prSi quis rationes exigere uetur, ut est saepissime rescriptum, non impeditur reliquas exigere, quas quis se reliquauit, et si quid dolo fecit qui rationes gessit.
[ULPIANUS on Sabinus, book 24] If anyone is forbidden to demand accounts, as has very frequently been stated in rescripts, he is not prevented from demanding the balance which the other has left outstanding under his own name, or from claiming in respect of any act committed through fraud by the person who managed the accounts.
quod si quis et haec uelit remittere, ita debet legare: 'damnas esto heres meus, quidquid ab eo exegerit illa uel illa actione, id ei restituere' uel 'actionem ei remittere'.
But if anyone wishes to release these too, he ought to bequeath in this manner: 'Let my heir be under a duty to restore to him whatever he shall have exacted from him by this or that action,' or 'to release the action against him.'

Notes

  1. §34.3.9.pruetur — The manuscript form `uetur` is interpreted as a syncopated form or scribal error for `uetatur` (third-person singular present passive of `ueto`), meaning 'is forbidden'.
  2. §34.3.9.prreliquas — Although feminine plural accusative, it is understood here as synonymous with the legal term `reliqua` (neuter plural, 'the balance') or as an ellipse of `reliquas [sc. pecunias / summas]` ('the outstanding sums'), serving as the object of `exigere`.
  3. §34.3.9.prquas quis se reliquauit — The relative pronoun `quas` refers back to `reliquas`. The reflexive pronoun `se` refers to the subject `quis` (the manager of the accounts), meaning the balance that he has left outstanding in his own hands.
  4. §34.3.9.prdamnas esto — A solemn imperative formula constituting a legacy by condemnation (legatum per damnationem), which imposes a legal duty on the heir. Here it governs the infinitives `restituere` (to restore) and `remittere` (to release).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §34.3.9.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:34.3.9.pr

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