[IAUOLENUS libro undecimo epistularum. ] §36.1.48.prSeius Saturninus archigubernus ex classe Britannica testamento fiduciarium reliquit heredem Ualerium Maximum trierarchum, a quo petit, ut filio suo Seio Oceano, cum ad annos sedecim peruenisset, hereditatem restitueret.
[JAVOLENUS, Letters, Book 11] Seius Saturninus, chief pilot of the British fleet, by his will left Valerius Maximus, a trierarch, as his fiduciary heir, and requested of him to restore the inheritance to his son, Seius Oceanus, when the latter should have reached the age of sixteen.
Seius Oceanus antequam impleret annos, defunctus est: nunc Mallius Seneca, qui se auunculum Seii Oceani dicit, proximitatis nomine haec bona petit, Maximus autem trierarchus sibi ea uindicat ideo, quia defunctus est is cui restituere iussus erat.
Seius Oceanus died before he attained that age. Now Mallius Seneca, who claims to be the maternal uncle of Seius Oceanus, demands these goods on the ground of proximity of relationship; on the other hand, Maximus the trierarch claims them for himself for the reason that the person to whom he had been ordered to restore them is dead.
quaero ergo utrum haec bona ad Ualerium Maximum trierarchum heredem fiduciarium pertineant an ad Mallium Senecam, qui se pueri defuncti auunculum esse dicit.
I ask, therefore, whether these goods belong to Valerius Maximus the trierarch, the fiduciary heir, or to Mallius Seneca, who claims to be the uncle of the deceased boy.
respondi: si Seius Oceanus, cui fideicommissa hereditas ex testamento Seii Saturnini, cum annos sedecim haberet, a Ualerio Maximo fiduciario herede restitui debeat, priusquam praefinitum tempus aetatis impleret, decessit, fiduciaria hereditas ad eum pertinet, ad quem cetera bona Oceani pertinuerint, quoniam dies fideicommissi uiuo Oceano cessit, scilicet si prorogando tempus solutionis tutelam magis heredi fiduciario permississe, quam incertum diem fideicommissi constituisse uideatur.
I replied: if Seius Oceanus, to whom the trust inheritance ought to have been restored by Valerius Maximus the fiduciary heir under the will of Seius Saturninus when he was sixteen years of age, died before he attained the prescribed age, the fiduciary inheritance belongs to the person to whom the rest of Oceanus's goods belong, since the right to the trust was vested during the lifetime of Oceanus; that is to say, if the testator, by postponing the time of payment, is deemed to have rather entrusted the guardianship to the fiduciary heir than to have established an uncertain day for the trust.