Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §42.1.30.pr

Limitation of Actions to Donor's Ability to Pay

Passage 6882 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Explains that in the case of a promised gift where the donor's resources risk being depleted, an action should only be granted up to the limit of what the donor can pay, leaving them with sufficient means, which is especially applicable between parents and children.

[POMPONIUS libro septimo uariarum lectionum. ] §42.1.30.prCum ex causa donationis promissa pecunia est, si dubium sit, an ea res eo usque donatoris facultates exhaurire possit, ut uix quicquam ei in bonis relictum sit, actio in id quod facere possit danda est, ita ut et ipsi donatori aliquid sufficiens relinquatur.
[POMPONIUS, in the seventh book of Various Readings.] When money has been promised on account of a gift, if it should be doubtful whether that matter could exhaust the donor's resources to such an extent that scarcely anything is left to him in his estate, an action must be granted for what he is able to pay, so that something sufficient may be left to the donor himself as well.
quod maxime inter liberos et parentes obseruandum est.
This must be especially observed between children and parents.

Notes

  1. §42.1.30.prin id quod facere possit — A legal idiom referring to the limit of the debtor's (here, the donor's) ability to pay. Here, facere means execution of the obligation (payment), and the subject of possit is the donor. This phrase represents the 'benefit of competence' (beneficium competentiae).
  2. §42.1.30.preo usque... ut — The adverbial phrase eo usque (to such an extent) correlates with the conjunction ut introducing a result clause, meaning 'to such an extent that...'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §42.1.30.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:42.1.30.pr

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