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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §39.5.10.pr

Donations to Absent Persons and Transfer of Ownership

Passage 6225 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section discusses the requirements for a valid donation to an absent person, addressing cases of the donee's ignorance or non-acceptance, and ownership transfer through a slave.

[PAULUS libro quinto decimo ad Sabinum. ] §39.5.10.prAbsenti, siue mittas qui ferat, siue quod ipse habeat sibi habere eum iubeas, donari recte potest.
[PAULUS in the fifteenth book on Sabinus.] A donation can rightly be made to an absent person, whether you send someone to carry it, or you bid him to keep for himself what he himself already has.
sed si nescit rem quae apud se est sibi esse donatam, uel missam sibi non acceperit, donatae rei dominus non fit, etiamsi per seruum eius cui donabatur missa fuerit, nisi ea mente seruo eius data fuerit, ut statim eius fiat.
But if he does not know that the thing which is with him has been donated to him, or if he has not accepted what was sent to him, he does not become the owner of the donated thing, even if it was sent through the slave of him to whom the donation was being made, unless it was given to his slave with the intention that it should immediately become his property.

Notes

  1. 39.5.10.prsibi — An indirect reflexive pronoun referring to eum (the absent donee), which is the subject accusative of the infinitive habere, rather than to the donor (the subject of iubeas).
  2. 39.5.10.prqui ferat — The verb ferat in the relative clause is in the subjunctive mood (present active third-person singular) to express purpose ('someone to carry it').
  3. 39.5.10.preius fiat — The genitive eius denotes possession, used with fiat (from fieri, 'to become') to mean 'become his property' (i.e., the property of the absent donee).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §39.5.10.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:39.5.10.pr

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