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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §38.13.1.pr

Denial of Action to a Freed Slave After Fraud by Master

Passage 6062 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Julianus argues that if a master maliciously prevents a will from being changed to ensure his slave inherits and then frees the slave, it is equitable to deny legal actions to the freed slave, drawing an analogy to the case of an emancipated son and a father.

[IULIANUS libro uicensimo octauo digestorum. ] §38.13.1.prSeruo meo herede instituto dolo feci, ne testamentum mutaretur, eumque postea manumisi: quaesitum est, an actiones ei denegandae essent.
[JULIANUS, from the twenty-eighth book of the Digests.] When my slave had been instituted as heir, I acted with malice so that the will should not be changed, and afterwards I manumitted him; the question arose whether actions should be denied to him.
respondi: hic casus uerbis edicti non continetur.
I replied: this case is not contained within the words of the edict.
sed aequum est, si dominus dolo fecerit, ne testamentum mutaretur, quo seruus eius heres scriptus erat, quamuis manumissus adierit hereditatem, ei denegari, cum etiam emancipato filio denegetur, si pater dolo fecerit, ne testamentum mutaretur.
But it is equitable that, if a master has acted with malice so that the will in which his slave was designated as heir should not be changed, although the slave, having been manumitted, has entered upon the inheritance, actions should be denied to him, since they are denied even to an emancipated son, if his father acted with malice so that the will should not be changed.

Notes

  1. §38.13.1.prSeruo meo herede instituto — An ablative absolute construction comprising the noun seruo, pronoun meo, and participle instituto (perfect passive participle of instituere), meaning 'when my slave had been instituted as heir' or 'with my slave having been instituted as heir.'
  2. §38.13.1.prei denegari — An accusative with infinitive clause serving as the subject of the impersonal expression aequum est ('it is equitable that...'). The infinitive denegari is present passive, and its subject (or rather, the object of the denial, actiones) is omitted as understood from the preceding sentence.
  3. §38.13.1.prquo — The neuter singular ablative of the relative pronoun qui, quae, quod, referring back to the antecedent testamentum. Within the relative clause, it functions as an ablative of instrument ('by which') or place ('in which').

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §38.13.1.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:38.13.1.pr

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