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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §34.4.14.pr-34.4.14.1

Invalidity of Revocation and Non-Validation of Void Legacies

Passage 5246 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The author discusses the principle that invalid legacies cannot be validated by revocation, and that the same grounds which make a legacy invalid also render its revocation ineffective.

[FLORENTINUS libro primo institutionum. ] §34.4.14.prLegata inutiliter data ademptione non confirmantur, ueluti si domino herede instituto, seruo pure legatum sub condicione adimatur: nam pure legatum si sub condicione adimatur, sub contraria condicione datum intellegitur et ideo confirmatur.
[FLORENTINUS in the first book of Institutes.] Legacies invalidly given are not confirmed by a revocation, as for example if, a master having been instituted heir, a legacy given unconditionally to his slave is revoked under a condition; for if an unconditional legacy is revoked under a condition, it is understood to be given under the contrary condition and is therefore confirmed.
ademptio autem, quo minus, non quo magis legatum debeatur, interuenit.
A revocation, however, intervenes so that a legacy should be less due, not more due.
§34.4.14.1Quibus ex causis datio legati inutilis est, ex isdem causis etiam ademptio inefficax habetur, ueluti si uiam pro parte adimas aut pro parte liberum esse uetes.
For the same reasons for which the giving of a legacy is invalid, for those same reasons also a revocation is held to be ineffective, as for example if you should revoke a right of way in part, or forbid [a slave] to be free in part.

Notes

  1. §34.4.14.prdomino herede instituto — An ablative absolute construction. It describes the situation where the master is instituted as heir. Under this circumstance, an unconditional legacy to his slave is void from the beginning (since what is acquired by the slave goes to the master, and one cannot leave a legacy to the sole heir), so attempting to revoke it conditionally cannot make it valid.
  2. §34.4.14.prquo minus, non quo magis legatum debeatur — Clauses of purpose or result containing the conjunction quo and comparative adverbs (minus, magis). Literally, 'it intervenes so that the legacy should be less due, not so that it should be more due', emphasizing that the essence of a revocation (ademptio) is to extinguish or reduce an obligation, not to validate or create one.
  3. §34.4.14.1uiam pro parte adimas — The word uiam refers to the right of way (servitus viae). In Roman law, servitudes like rights of way and the status of freedom (libertas) are indivisible (indivisibilis); therefore, revoking them in part (pro parte) is legally impossible and such a revocation is held to be ineffective.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §34.4.14.pr-34.4.14.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:34.4.14.pr-34.4.14.1

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