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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §41.8.4.pr

Usucapion on Ground of Legacy Based on Just Cause

Passage 6838 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Paulus explains that usucapion on the ground of legacy is possible if a third party's property is bequeathed, or if a revocation by a codicil is unknown, as a just cause exists for the recipient, and adds that the same applies when there is a confusion of identical names.

[PAULUS libro quinquagensimo quarto ad edictum. ] §41.8.4.prPro legato potest usucapi, si res aliena legata sit aut testatoris quidem sit, sed adempta codicillis ignoratur: in horum enim persona subest iusta causa, quae sufficit ad usucapionem.
[PAULUS, from his fifty-fourth book on the Edict.] Usucapion can take place on the ground of legacy, if a thing belonging to another has been bequeathed, or if it indeed belonged to the testator but it is not known to have been revoked by a codicil: for in the person of these there is a just cause which is sufficient for usucapion.
idem potest dici et si in nomine erit dubitatio, ueluti si Titio legatum sit, cum sint duo Titii, ut alter eorum de se cogitatum existimauerit.
The same can also be said if there is a doubt about the name, for example, if a legacy has been left to Titius, when there are two of that name, so that one of them thinks that he was the one intended.

Notes

  1. §41.8.4.pradempta codicillis ignoratur — The verb ignoratur functions as a passive verb (with the implicit res as its subject). adempta is a perfect passive participle in the nominative feminine singular, agreeing with res. With the omission of the infinitive esse, it functions like a nominative with infinitive (NCI) construction, meaning 'it [the property] is not known to have been revoked by a codicil'.
  2. §41.8.4.prde se cogitatum existimauerit — cogitatum [esse] is the impersonal perfect passive infinitive of the intransitive verb cogitare ('to think/meditate'). Combined with de se ('about oneself'), it serves as the object clause of existimauerit ('should think/estimate'), meaning 'he thought that he was the one thought of (intended)'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §41.8.4.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:41.8.4.pr

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