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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §40.5.22.pr-40.5.22.2

Relief in Trust Freedom During Absence or Default

Passage 6432 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This chunk outlines the interventions of the praetor and relief measures based on senate decrees when legatees or heirs neglect or face difficulties in granting trust-freedom due to absence, death, or evasive behavior.

[IDEM libro uicensimo secundo quaestionum. ] §40.5.22.prSi legatario fundi decem pretii nomine relicta sint in hoc, ut seruum suum manumittat, quamuis fundi legatum adgnouerit, si tamen pecuniae propter interuentum Falcidiae non adgnouerit, cogendus est et pecuniam accipere habita legis Falcidiae ratione et seruo fideicommissariam libertatem praestare, cum semel fundi legatum adgnouit.
[The same, Book XXII of Questions.] If ten has been left under the name of a price to the legatee of a tract of land for this purpose, that he should manumit his own slave, although he has accepted the legacy of the land, if however he has not accepted that of the money because of the intervention of the Lex Falcidia, he must be compelled both to receive the money, taking into account the proportion of the Lex Falcidia, and to grant the trust-freedom to the slave, since he has once accepted the legacy of the land.
§40.5.22.1A duobus heredibus qui tres seruos habebat petit, ut duos ex his quos uoluissent manumittant: altero heredum latitante alter declarat, quos uelit manumittere.
A testator, who had three slaves, requested of two heirs that they should manumit two of them whom they wished: while one of the heirs is in hiding, the other declares whom he wishes to manumit.
potest dici fieri liberos, ut perinde libertas competat, ac si praesens solus manumittere potuisset.
It can be said that they become free, so that freedom belongs to them just as if the one present had been able to manumit alone.
quod si ex seruis unus decesserit, siue iusta ex causa absit heres siue fari non possit a quo petitum est, decernente praetore duos qui supersunt fieri liberos conuenit.
But if one of the slaves has died, whether the heir of whom it was requested is absent for a just cause or is unable to speak, it is agreed that, by decree of the praetor, the two who survive become free.
§40.5.22.2Cum is qui fideicommissam libertatem praestare debet iusta ex causa abest aut latitat: aut quidam praesentes sunt, alii ex iusta causa absunt, nonnulli frustrandi gratia fideicommissi copiam sui non faciunt: aut ei, qui libertatem debuit, heres non extitit: aut suus heres hereditate se abstinuit: praetor pronuntiare debet ex testamento Lucii Titii fideicommissam libertatem competere.
When he who ought to grant the trust-freedom is absent for a just cause or is in hiding; or some are present, others are absent for a just cause, and some do not present themselves for the purpose of frustrating the trust; or no heir has succeeded to him who owed the freedom; or a self-successor has abstained from the inheritance: the praetor ought to pronounce that the trust-freedom belongs under the testament of Lucius Titius.
idque senatus consulto demonstratum est, quo senatus consulto comprehensum est, ne dubium et obscurum esset, cuius libertus fieret, praetorem pronuntiare debere, qui ex iusta causa et qui detractandae libertatis gratia absit.
And this has been shown by a senate decree, by which senate decree it was included, lest it should be doubtful and obscure whose freedman he would become, that the praetor ought to pronounce who is absent for a just cause, and who is absent for the purpose of evading the freedom.

Notes

  1. §40.5.22.prin hoc, ut seruum suum manumittat — in hoc is a prepositional phrase indicating purpose, standing in apposition to the subsequent ut clause with the subjunctive manumittat ('for this purpose, that he should manumit...').
  2. §40.5.22.prhabita legis Falcidiae ratione — An ablative absolute construction consisting of the perfect passive participle habita and the noun ratione ('account, consideration'). It means 'taking into account the calculation of the Lex Falcidia' (a law reserving a quarter of the estate for the heir).
  3. §40.5.22.1fari non possit — fari is the present infinitive of the deponent verb for ('to speak'). 'Unable to speak' here refers not only to literal muteness but also to a state where making a legal declaration is practically impossible due to mental illness or severe sickness.
  4. §40.5.22.2suus heres hereditate se abstinuit — se abstinere with the ablative (hereditate) refers to the legal act of 'abstaining from/renouncing the inheritance.' Although a suus heres (self-successor) automatically acquired the status of heir upon the testator's death, they could effectively avoid the inheritance through the praetor's remedy (beneficium abstinendi) if the estate was insolvent.
  5. §40.5.22.2detractandae libertatis gratia — A genitive phrase where the gerundive detractandae agrees with the noun libertatis, and the entire phrase modifies gratia ('for the sake of, for the purpose of'), meaning 'for the purpose of evading [the granting of] freedom.'

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §40.5.22.pr-40.5.22.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:40.5.22.pr-40.5.22.2

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