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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §35.2.75.pr

Legacies Conditioned on Full Payment and the Lex Falcidia

Passage 5520 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

It states that if a legacy was given to an heir for the purpose of paying other legacies or fideicommissa in full, the action to claim his legacy must be denied if he prefers to use the Lex Falcidia.

[MARCELLUS Ex libro quadragesimo digestorum IULIANI.]
[MARCELLUS, From the fortieth book of the Digests of JULIAN.] MARCELLUS.
§35.2.75.prMARCELLUS. Sed si ideo legatum ei datum est, ut integra legata uel fideicommissa praestet, deneganda erit actio legati, si lege Falcidia uti mallet.
But if a legacy was given to him for the purpose that he should pay the legacies or fideicommissa in full, the action for the legacy must be denied, if he should prefer to avail himself of the Lex Falcidia.

Notes

  1. 35.2.75.prideo... ut — A correlative construction meaning "for this reason... that...". The adverb ideo (for that reason) is specified by the following ut clause with the subjunctive present praestet.
  2. 35.2.75.prsi lege Falcidia uti mallet — The verb mallet in the conditional clause is the subjunctive imperfect of the irregular verb malle (to prefer), showing a hypothetical or conditional nuance: "if he should prefer to make use of the Lex Falcidia" (a law guaranteeing a fourth to the heir and reducing excessive legacies).
  3. 35.2.75.practio legati — The action for the legacy. The genitive legati is an objective genitive dependent on actio. Here, "legacy" refers to the legacy given to the heir himself (ei), and the action refers to his right to sue the co-heirs for its fulfillment.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §35.2.75.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:35.2.75.pr

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