Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §46.3.90.pr

Payment to an Emancipated Minor Heir and Debtor Release

Passage 7745 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Concerning a minor son who administered his father's estate as heir, made a loan, recovered it, and then renounced the inheritance, the question is raised whether the appointed curator has an action against the borrower, and the answer clarifies that the debtor is released since he has paid.

[IDEM libro uicensimo sexto digestorum. ] §46.3.90.prFilius, qui administrabat ut heres paterna bona, pecuniam ex his Sempronio mutuam dedit et eandem particulatim recepit, deinde se abstinuit, quia minor annis erat, ab ea hereditate: quaesitum est, curator bonorum patris constitutus an aduersus Sempronium utilem actionem habet.
[The same, in the twenty-sixth book of the Digests.] A son, who was administering his father's property as heir, made a loan from it to Sempronius and received the same back in instalments, and then, because he was a minor, abstained from that inheritance. The question was asked whether the curator appointed for the father's estate has an equitable action against Sempronius.
respondit nihil proponi, cur non is, qui soluisset id quod mutuum ita acceperat, liberatus esset.
He answered that nothing is put forward to show why he who had paid what he had thus received as a loan should not be released.

Notes

  1. §46.3.90.prse abstinuit — The verb abstinere used with the reflexive pronoun se and the ablative ab ea hereditate means 'to abstain from the inheritance' (i.e., to renounce it). In this context, it refers to the legal privilege granted to a minor heir to decline the inheritance and thus avoid liability for its debts.
  2. §46.3.90.prutilem actionem — Translated as 'equitable action' or 'analogous action' (utilis actio). It refers to an action granted by the praetor on grounds of equity by extending or modifying a direct action (directa actio) to cover a case which, though not within the strict letter of the civil law, is analogous to it.
  3. §46.3.90.prnihil proponi — An accusative-and-infinitive construction forming the object clause of respondit. Literally, 'that nothing is put forward [to show] why ... he should not be released,' which is an indirect way of expressing a strong affirmative conclusion ('he is indeed released').

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §46.3.90.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:46.3.90.pr

Please note the AI-draft status of the translation and the date accessed.

Translation, notes and summary are AI-generated drafts, revised through reader feedback.