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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §38.16.8.pr-38.16.8.1

Scope of Cognates in Edict and Succession upon Stillbirth

Passage 6076 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

It discusses the definition of cognates in the praetor's edict and the nature of the cognitive relationship of grandchildren conceived after the deceased's death, and illustrates statutory inheritance with a case of death order when a wife is pregnant.

[IULIANUS libro quinquagensimo nono digestorum. ] §38.16.8.prItem praetor edicto suo proximitatis nomine bonorum possessionem pollicetur his, qui defuncto mortis tempore cognati fuerint.
[JULIANUS, from the fifty-ninth book of the Digests.] Likewise, the praetor in his edict promises the possession of goods on the ground of proximity to those who were cognates to the deceased at the time of his death.
nam quod in consuetudine nepotes cognati appellantur etiam eorum, post quorum mortem concepti sunt, non proprie, sed per abusionem uel potius άναφορικῶς accidit.
For the fact that in common parlance grandchildren are called the cognates even of those after whose death they were conceived occurs not in the proper sense, but by catachresis or rather retrospectively.
§38.16.8.1Si quis praegnatem uxorem reliquisset et matrem et sororem, si uiua uxore mater mortua fuisset, deinde uxor mortuum peperisset, ad sororem solam legitima hereditas pertinet, quia certum esset matrem eo tempore decessisse, quo legitima hereditas ad eam non pertinebat.
If anyone had left a pregnant wife, a mother, and a sister, and if, while the wife was alive, the mother had died, and then the wife had given birth to a dead child, the statutory inheritance belongs to the sister alone, because it was certain that the mother had died at a time when the statutory inheritance did not belong to her.

Notes

  1. §38.16.8.prquod ... appellantur ... accidit — The clause introduced by quod (quod ... appellantur) functions as the subject noun clause of the main verb accidit ('the fact that... happens').
  2. §38.16.8.prάναφορικῶς — The Greek adverb ἀναφορικῶς ('retrospectively' or 'relationally') refers to the legal fiction where a grandchild conceived and born after the grandfather's death is retrospectively linked as a cognate, as if already existing at the time of the grandfather's death.
  3. §38.16.8.1uiua uxore — uiua uxore is an ablative absolute consisting of a noun and an adjective, indicating time or circumstance ('while the wife was alive').
  4. §38.16.8.1quo legitima hereditas ad eam non pertinebat — The antecedent of quo is tempore. The reason why the statutory inheritance did not belong to the mother is that during her lifetime, the birth of the posthumous child (which would determine whether the inheritance opens to collaterals) was still pending.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §38.16.8.pr-38.16.8.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:38.16.8.pr-38.16.8.1

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