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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §40.5.48.pr

Security for Manumission by Legatee and the Plea of Fraud

Passage 6461 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The jurist holds that when a slave is bequeathed to a legatee with the intention that the legatee manumit him, the plea of fraud (exceptio doli) will bar the legatee's claim for the slave unless he gives security to grant him freedom according to the deceased's wishes.

[IDEM libro sexagensimo secundo digestorum. ] §40.5.48.prCum in testamento scriptum est: 'Stichum Titio lego' uel 'heres meus dato ita, ut eum Titius manumittat', dixi petenti legatario Stichum exceptionem doli mali obstaturam, nisi cauerit se libertatem secundum uoluntatem defuncti praestaturum.
[THE SAME in the sixty-second book of the Digests.] When it is written in a testament: 'I bequeath Stichus to Titius' or 'let my heir give him in such a way that Titius manumits him', I said that the plea of fraud will bar the legatee who claims Stichus, unless he gives security that he will grant freedom in accordance with the will of the deceased.

Notes

  1. §40.5.48.prpetenti legatario Stichum — The present active participle petenti is in the dative case, modifying legatario (which is the dative object of the verb obstare in the future infinitive obstaturam [esse]). At the same time, because of its transitive nature, it governs the accusative Stichum as its direct object.
  2. §40.5.48.prcauerit se libertatem... praestaturum — In legal contexts, cauere means 'to give security (e.g., by stipulation)', and here it introduces the following accusative-with-infinitive clause (se... praestaturum [esse]). The accusative reflexive pronoun se (the subject of the infinitive) refers back to the subject of cauerit (the legatee).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §40.5.48.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:40.5.48.pr

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