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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §42.2.3.pr

Admission of Perished Specific Legacy and Duty of Valuation

Passage 6919 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Paulus cites Iulianus' view that a person who admits to owing a specific legacy must be condemned to pay its valuation, even if the item never existed or has already perished, because an admission in court is treated as equivalent to a judgment.

[PAULUS libro nono ad Plautium. ] §42.2.3.prIulianus ait confessum certum se debere legatum omnimodo damnandum, etiam si in rerum natura non fuisset et si iam a natura recessit, ita tamen, ut in aestimationem eius damnetur: quia confessus pro iudicato habetur.
[PAULUS, in the ninth book on Plautius.] Iulianus says that a person who has admitted that he owes a specific legacy must by all means be condemned, even if the thing had not existed in the nature of things, and even if it has already ceased to exist; provided, however, that he is condemned to the value of it: because a person who makes an admission is held as one already judged.

Notes

  1. §42.2.3.prconfessum certum se debere legatum — confessum is the subject of the accusative-and-infinitive (Aci) construction governed by the main verb ait, functioning substantively. This participle in turn governs another accusative-and-infinitive clause, se debere certum legatum, expressing the content of the admission.
  2. §42.2.3.prin rerum natura non fuisset et si iam a natura recessit — The former expression, in rerum natura esse (to exist), in the pluperfect subjunctive, and the latter, a natura recedere (to cease to exist), in the perfect indicative, form a contrast. The former refers to initial objective impossibility of the legacy, while the latter refers to subsequent physical destruction of the object.
  3. §42.2.3.prita tamen, ut in aestimationem eius damnetur — The clause introduced by ita tamen, ut... is a restrictive clause of result/condition. Since the specific object itself cannot be delivered, the duty to pay is sustained under the condition that the condemnation (damnandum [esse]) is directed to the monetary valuation (aestimationem) of the object.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §42.2.3.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:42.2.3.pr

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