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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §35.2.51.pr

Initial Invalidity and Subsequent Denial of Action for Legacies

Passage 5496 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

It explains that regarding a legacy which the heir can block by an exception, it makes no difference whether it was virtually invalid from the beginning or subsequently came to have its action denied.

[IULIANUS libro sexagesimo primo digestorum. ] §35.2.51.prNec interest, utrum ab initio quasi inutile fuerit an ex accidenti postea in eum casum peruenisset legatum, ut actio eius denegaretur.
[JULIANUS in the sixty-first book of his Digests.] And it makes no difference whether the legacy was, as it were, invalid from the beginning, or whether it had subsequently by accident fallen into such a position that the action for it would be denied.

Notes

  1. §35.2.51.prquasi inutile fuerit — The perfect subjunctive fuerit is used in an indirect question introduced by utrum, expressing a past state relative to the present tense impersonal verb interest of the main clause. quasi ("as it were") modifies the adjective inutile, indicating a state of practical inefficacy rather than absolute legal nullity from the outset.
  2. §35.2.51.prin eum casum... ut — The ut clause (ut actio eius denegaretur) is a consecutive clause (result clause) that specifies the content of the preceding phrase eum casum. Here, eius is a genitive pronoun referring to legati (the legacy), and denegaretur is in the imperfect subjunctive due to the sequence of tenses following the pluperfect peruenisset.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §35.2.51.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:35.2.51.pr

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