[AFRICANUS libro nono quaestionum. ] §40.5.49.prSi is, cui seruus legatus est, rogatus manumittere latitet, orcinum fieri libertum respondit: idem fore et si non legatarii, sed heredis fidei commissum esset.
[AFRICANUS in the ninth book of Questions.] He answered that if a person to whom a slave has been bequeathed, having been requested to manumit him, conceals himself, the freedman becomes an Orcinian freedman; and that the same would hold even if the trust had been imposed not on the legatee, but on the heir.
sed et si non omnium, sed quorundam heredum fidei commissum sit, aeque dicendum orcinum fieri: in eos autem qui latitauerint coheredibus, a quibus redimendae partes essent, utilem actionem eo nomine dari debere uel etiam familiae erciscundae iudicio recte eos acturos.
But even if the trust is imposed not on all, but on some of the heirs, it must likewise be said that the slave becomes an Orcinian freedman; moreover, against those who have concealed themselves, a useful action ought to be granted on that account to the co-heirs from whom the shares were to be purchased, or they will also proceed rightly by the action for the partition of an inheritance.