Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §44.2.9.pr-44.2.9.2

Inheritance Claims Without Possession and Plea Transfers

Passage 7222 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Ulpianus discusses the non-applicability of the exception of res judicata in inheritance claims when the defendant lacked possession, the legal relation when a person defends a claim to land and then purchases it, and the rule that the exception of res judicata transfers from seller to buyer but not vice versa.

[ULPIANUS libro septuagensimo quinto ad edictum. ] §44.2.9.prSi a te hereditatem petam, cum nihil possideres, deinde, ubi coeperis aliquid possidere, hereditatem petam, an noceat exceptio ista? et putem, siue fuit iudicatum hereditatem meam esse, siue aduersarius, quia nihil possidebat, absolutus est, non nocere exceptionem.
[ULPIANUS, commentary on the edict, book seventy-five] If I claim an inheritance from you when you possessed nothing, and then, when you have begun to possess something, I claim the inheritance, does that exception bar my way? And I would think that, whether it was adjudged that the inheritance is mine, or the opponent was acquitted because he possessed nothing, the exception does not bar.
§44.2.9.1Si quis fundum, quem putabat se possidere, defenderit, mox emerit: re secundum petitorem iudicata an restituere cogatur? et ait Neratius, si actori iterum petenti obiciatur exceptio rei iudicatae, replicare eum oportere de re secundum se iudicata.
If anyone defended an action for a land which he thought he possessed, and soon afterwards bought it: once the case has been decided in favor of the claimant, is he compelled to restore it? And Neratius says that if the exception of res judicata is raised against the plaintiff claiming again, he ought to make a replication concerning the case decided in his favor.
§44.2.9.2Iulianus scribit exceptionem rei iudicatae a persona auctoris ad emptorem transire solere, retro autem ab emptore ad auctorem reuerti non debere.
Julianus writes that the exception of res judicata usually passes from the person of the seller to the buyer, but backward it ought not to return from the buyer to the seller.
quare si hereditariam rem uendideris, ego eandem ab emptore petiero et uicero, petenti tibi non opponam exceptionem 'at si ea res iudicata non sit inter me et eum, cui uendidisti'.
Therefore, if you have sold an inheritance property, and I have claimed the same from the buyer and won, I will not oppose to you when you claim it the exception "unless that matter has not been adjudged between me and him to whom you sold."

Notes

  1. §44.2.9.prputem — The present subjunctive in an independent clause, acting as a potential subjunctive to express a cautious assertion ('I would think').
  2. §44.2.9.1re secundum petitorem iudicata — An ablative absolute construction meaning 'the matter having been adjudged in favor of the claimant'. The preposition 'secundum' here functions as 'in favor of'.
  3. §44.2.9.2at si ea res iudicata non sit — In Roman formulaic procedure, an exception (exceptio) was typically inserted as a negative condition ('unless...'). The introductory 'at' is characteristic of such formulaic clauses, here quoting the standard formulation of the exception of res judicata.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §44.2.9.pr-44.2.9.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:44.2.9.pr-44.2.9.2

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