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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §4.3.29.pr

Accounting Basis of Heir Liability Without Infamy

Passage 690 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Sabinus argues that the action against the heir is based on financial accounting rather than the wrongdoing itself, and therefore the heir does not suffer infamy and remains liable perpetually.

[PAULUS libro undecimo ad edictum. ] §4.3.29.prSabinus putat calculi ratione potius quam maleficii heredem conueniri, denique famosum non fieri: ideoque in perpetuum teneri oportere.
[PAULUS libro undecimo ad edictum.] Sabinus thinks that the heir is sued on the ground of an accounting rather than of a wrongdoing, and consequently does not become infamous, and therefore ought to be held liable perpetually.

Notes

  1. §4.3.29.prcalculi ratione potius quam maleficii — Both calculi and maleficii (with ratione understood in the latter case) are genitives depending on the ablative noun ratione ("by reason of", "on the ground of"). This highlights the Sabinian view that the action against the heir is not based on the moral or personal guilt of a delict (maleficium), which would not survive against the heir, but on the financial adjustment or accounting (calculus) of the enrichment that passed to the estate.
  2. §4.3.29.prfamosum non fieri — famosum is an accusative predicate adjective agreeing with the omitted subject heredem in the accusative-and-infinitive (AcI) construction governed by putat. It refers to the legal consequence of infamia (loss of civic honor), which, while severely affecting the principal perpetrator of fraud, does not apply to their heir.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §4.3.29.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:4.3.29.pr

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