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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §41.4.14.pr

Usucapion of Land Believed Sold Under Mandate of Absent Co-heir

Passage 6816 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section discusses whether a good-faith buyer who bought an inherited land in its entirety from a brother acting on behalf of his absent brother can acquire the whole property by long-term possession, despite knowing that part of it belonged to the absent brother, provided he believed the sale was authorized by the brother's mandate.

[SCAEUOLA libro uicensimo quinto digestorum. ]
[SCAEVOLA, from his twenty-fifth book of Digests.] The inheritance of an intestate sister devolved upon two brothers, of whom one was absent and the other present.
§41.4.14.prIntestatae sororis hereditas obuenit duobus fratribus, quorum alter absens erat, alter praesens: praesens etiam absentis causam agebat, ex qua hereditate suo et fratris sui nomine fundum in solidum uendidit Lucio Titio bona fide ementi: quaesitum est, cum scierit partem fundi absentis esse, an totum fundum longa possessione ceperit.
The brother who was present also managed the affairs of the absent one, and from this inheritance he sold a tract of land in its entirety, in his own name and that of his brother, to Lucius Titius who bought it in good faith. It was asked whether, although the buyer knew that a part of the land belonged to the absent brother, he acquired the whole land by long-term possession.
respondit, si credidisset mandatu fratris uenisse, per longum tempus cepisse.
He answered that if the buyer had believed that the land was sold by the mandate of the brother, he acquired it by long-term possession.

Notes

  1. §41.4.14.prcum scierit — The conjunction cum is interpreted here as concessive ('although'). The subject of the subjunctive perfect scierit is the buyer (Lucius Titius), referred to in the preceding clause as Lucio Titio... ementi.
  2. §41.4.14.pruenisse — Although homonymous with the perfect infinitive of uenio, uenire ('to come'), this is the perfect infinitive of the semi-passive verb ueneo, uenire ('to be sold') from the perfect stem ueni-. Therefore, it means 'that [the land] was sold'.
  3. §41.4.14.prsi credidisset — The subject of the conditional clause si credidisset (subjunctive pluperfect) is also the buyer, and cepisse (to have acquired) in the apodosis is a perfect infinitive in indirect speech introduced by the main verb respondit.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §41.4.14.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:41.4.14.pr

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