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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §35.2.66.pr-35.2.66.1

Present Value of Conditional Bequests and Deductibility

Passage 5511 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Ulpian explains that conditional or future bequests decrease in current value due to the passage of time, and states the principle that legacies and donations mortis causa are invalid unless there is a surplus after deducting debts.

[ULPIANUS libro octauo decimo ad legem Iuliam et Papiam. ] §35.2.66.prCirca legem Falcidiam in eo, quod sub condicione uel in diem alicui relictum est, hoc obseruandum est: si decem sub condicione alicui fuerint relicta eaque condicio post decennium forte exstiterit, non uidentur decem huic legata, sed minus decem, quia interuallum temporis et interusurium huius spatii minorem facit quantitatem decem.
[ULPIANUS, in the eighteenth book on the Lex Iulia et Papia.] Concerning the Falcidian law, in regard to that which has been left to someone under a condition or for a specified day, this must be observed: if ten should be left to someone under a condition and that condition should happen to exist after ten years, not ten, but less than ten, are deemed to have been bequeathed to him, because the interval of time and the loss of interest for this period makes the quantity of ten smaller.
§35.2.66.1Sicuti legata non debentur, nisi deducto aere alieno aliquid supersit, nec mortis causa donationes debebuntur, sed infirmantur per aes alienum.
Just as legacies are not due unless something remains after deducting the debts, neither will donations mortis causa be due, but they are invalidated by debt.
quare si immodicum aes alienum interueniat, ex re mortis causa sibi donata nihil aliquis consequitur.
Therefore, if an excessive debt intervenes, no one obtains anything from the thing donated to him mortis causa.

Notes

  1. 35.2.66.prin diem — A legal prepositional phrase meaning 'for a specified day' or 'subject to a time limit', indicating a legacy subject to a future date, contrasted with a conditional legacy (sub condicione).
  2. 35.2.66.prnon uidentur decem huic legata — A personal construction using uidentur (third-person plural of uideri). The indeclinable numeral decem is treated as a plural subject, with legata (neuter plural nominative) functioning as the predicate participle.
  3. 35.2.66.1deducto aere alieno — An ablative absolute construction consisting of the noun aes alienum (debt, literally 'other people's copper') and the perfect participle deducto (deducted), expressing the condition 'after the debt has been deducted'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §35.2.66.pr-35.2.66.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:35.2.66.pr-35.2.66.1

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