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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §36.2.19.pr-36.2.19.4

Vesting of Alternative Legacies and Fideicommissa

Passage 5660 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The text discusses the legal nature of alternative legacies depending on the presence of a time limit, and explains the timing of the accrual of rights in conditional legacies, fideicommissa, and the legacy of a debt.

[IDEM libro septuagensimo digestorum. ] §36.2.19.prCum sine praefinitione temporis legatum ita datum fuerit: 'uxori meae penum heres dato: si non dederit, centum dato', unum legatum intellegitur centum et statim peti potest, penoris autem causa eo tantum pertinet, ut ante litem contestatam tradita peno heres liberetur.
[THE SAME, seventieth book of the Digest.] When a legacy is given without any definition of time in this manner: 'Let my heir give provisions to my wife; if he does not give them, let him give one hundred,' it is understood as a single legacy of one hundred and can be demanded immediately; but the matter of the provisions only goes so far as that the heir is released by delivering the provisions before the joinder of issue (litis contestatio).
§36.2.19.1Quod si ita scriptum sit 'si penum intra kalendas non dederit, centum dato', non efficitur, ut duo legata sint, sed ut centum legata sub condicione uideantur: idcirco si uxor ante kalendas decesserit, heredi suo neque penum relinquet, quia legata non est, neque centum, quia dies legati cesserit necesse est legataria uiua.
But if it is written thus: 'If he does not give the provisions by the Kalends, let him give one hundred,' this does not result in there being two legacies, but rather that the one hundred is seen as bequeathed under a condition. Therefore, if the wife dies before the Kalends, she will leave neither the provisions to her heir, because they were not bequeathed, nor the one hundred, because it is necessary that the right to the legacy should arise while the legatee is alive.
§36.2.19.2Statim dies mihi cedit, cum ab eo mihi fideicommissum datum est, cui sub condicione legatum est, quemadmodum si herede instituto sub condicione pure mihi legetur.
The right accrues to me immediately when a fideicommissum is given to me by someone to whom a legacy was left under a condition, just as if a legacy is left to me unconditionally by an heir appointed under a condition.
§36.2.19.3Si debitori quod sub condicione debet legatum est, praesens legatum est agique ex testamento statim potest, ut liberatio praestetur, et, si post mortem testatoris decesserit, ad heredem transmittit actionem.
If a legacy is made to a debtor of what he owes under a condition, the legacy is unconditional, and an action on the testament can be brought immediately so that release may be performed; and, if he dies after the death of the testator, he transmits the action to his heir.
§36.2.19.4Haec dicenda erunt et si non ipsi debitori, sed alii cuilibet similiter legatum esse proponatur.
The same must be said even if it is proposed that a legacy of a similar kind is made not to the debtor himself, but to any other person.

Notes

  1. §36.2.19.prtradita peno — An ablative absolute construction consisting of the noun penus (here in the second-declension feminine ablative form peno) and the perfect participle tradita, meaning 'by delivering the provisions' or 'the provisions having been delivered.' It functions within the ut-clause of the main sentence as the means or condition by which the heres is released.
  2. §36.2.19.1quia dies legati cesserit necesse est legataria uiua — The impersonal verb necesse est usually takes a subjunctive without ut or an accusative with infinitive. Here, dies legati cesserit (perfect subjunctive) serves as the subject clause, within which legataria uiua acts as an ablative absolute adding the temporal condition 'while the legatee is alive.' The phrase dies cedere is a technical legal term meaning 'the right (to a legacy) accrues.'
  3. §36.2.19.2ab eo mihi fideicommissum datum est, cui sub condicione legatum est — The antecedent of the relative pronoun cui is eo (from is) in the prepositional phrase ab eo. The verb legatum est in the relative clause corresponds to the passive verb datum est in the main clause, modifying the demonstrative pronoun eo. Structurally, it translates as: 'a fideicommissum is given to me by him (eo) to whom (cui) a legacy was left under a condition.'

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §36.2.19.pr-36.2.19.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:36.2.19.pr-36.2.19.4

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