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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §36.2.24.pr-36.2.24.1

Legacies with Alternative Payments upon Default

Passage 5665 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section discusses how the absence of demand and the survival of the legatee affect the validity and inheritance of an alternative legacy (such as provisions or land, or a sum of money in default of delivery), and clarifies when a legacy is not deemed to be established.

[PAULUS libro sexto ad legem Iuliam et Papiam. ] §36.2.24.prSi penum heres dare damnatus sit uel fundum et, si non dedisset, decem, ego accepi et penum legatam et translatam esse in decem, si noluerit penum heres dare, et tunc pecuniam deberi, cum interpellatus fundum non dedisset, et, si interea decesserit legatarius, tunc heredi eius non nisi fundum deberi.
[PAULUS, sixth book on the Lex Julia et Papia.] If an heir is condemned to give provisions or a tract of land, and 'if he should not have given it, ten,' I have understood that both the provisions are bequeathed and they are transferred into ten if the heir does not wish to give the provisions, and that the money is due only when, having been demanded, he has not given the land, and if in the meantime the legatee dies, then only the land is due to his heir.
namque cum dictum est: 'at Publicius fundum dato', perfectum est legatum et cum dicit: 'si non dederit, centum dato', sub condicione fundi legatum ademptum uideri eo casu, quo centum deberi coeperint.
For when it is said: 'Let Publicius give the land,' the legacy is complete; and when he says: 'if he should not have given it, let him give a hundred,' the legacy of the land is deemed to be revoked under a condition in that case in which the hundred begins to be due.
quorum quia condicio uiuo legatario non exstiterit, forte quia interpellatus heres non sit, euenit, ut ademptio nihil egerit fundique legatum durauerit.
Since the condition of these did not exist during the lifetime of the legatee, perhaps because the heir was not demanded, it happens that the revocation had no effect and the legacy of the land remained valid.
§36.2.24.1Plane si sic legatum sit: 'si penum non dederit, decem dato', dicimus non esse penum legatum.
Clearly, if it is bequeathed thus: 'if he does not give provisions, let him give ten,' we say that the provisions are not bequeathed.

Notes

  1. §36.2.24.prego accepi — Three accusative-with-infinitive (ACI) clauses are parallelly connected by `et` as the objects of the verb `accepi` ("I have understood"). The first is `penum legatam [esse] et translatam esse`, the second is `pecuniam deberi`, and the third is `heredi eius non nisi fundum deberi`.
  2. §36.2.24.prnon nisi fundum deberi — The phrase `non nisi` is a restrictive expression meaning "nothing but" or "only." Since the condition for the alternative money debt (`si non dedisset`) cannot be fulfilled if the legatee dies without having made a demand (`interpellatus`), only the original subject of the legacy, the land (`fundum`), is owed to his heir.
  3. §36.2.24.prquorum quia condicio — The genitive plural relative pronoun `quorum` refers to the preceding money (`centum`) or the elements of the alternative condition. It explains that the lack of demand during the legatee's lifetime prevented the condition from ever being fulfilled.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §36.2.24.pr-36.2.24.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:36.2.24.pr-36.2.24.1

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