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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §35.2.47.pr-35.2.47.1

Retroactive Falcidian Reduction on Annuities

Passage 5492 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Explains that if the Lex Falcidia applies to legacies payable in annual installments, all previous installments are retroactively reduced once an excess is revealed ex post facto, and that a legatee or fideicommissary never enjoys the benefit of this law.

[IDEM libro septuagesimo nono ad edictum. ] §35.2.47.prLex Falcidia si interueniat, in omnibus pensionibus locum habet: sed hoc ex post facto apparebit.
[THE SAME in the seventy-ninth book on the Edict.] If the Lex Falcidia intervenes, it applies to all installments; but this will appear ex post facto.
ut puta in annos singulos legatum relictum est: quamdiu Falcidia nondum locum habet, integrae pensiones annuae dabuntur: sed enim si annus uenerit, quo fit, ut contra legem Falcidiam ultradrantem aliquid debeatur, eueniet, ut retro omnia legata singulorum annorum imminuantur.
For example, if a legacy is left to be paid annually: as long as the Falcidia does not yet apply, the annual installments shall be paid in full; but if a year comes in which it happens that, contrary to the Lex Falcidia, something beyond three-quarters is owed, it will result that all the legacies of the individual years are retroactively reduced.
§35.2.47.1Numquam legatarius uel fideicommissarius, licet ex Trebelliano senatus consulto restituitur ei hereditas, utitur legis Falcidiae beneficio.
A legatee or fideicommissary, even though the inheritance is restored to him under the Trebellian senatusconsultum, never enjoys the benefit of the Lex Falcidia.

Notes

  1. 35.2.47.prultradrantem — The word ultradrantem is understood as a portmanteau or manuscript corruption of ultra and dodrantem (three-quarters). Under the Lex Falcidia, the legacies could not exceed three-quarters of the estate, so this refers to a situation where a liability of legacies exceeding three-quarters arises.
  2. 35.2.47.prquo fit, ut... debeatur — Inside the clause introduced by the relative adverb quo, the impersonal verb fit governs another ut clause of result, forming a double subordinate structure meaning 'whereby it happens that... is owed.'
  3. 35.2.47.1licet... restituitur — The concessive conjunction licet normally governs the subjunctive mood in classical Latin, but here it is used with the indicative present restituitur. This usage is common in late Latin and juristic prose.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §35.2.47.pr-35.2.47.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:35.2.47.pr-35.2.47.1

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