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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §48.10.4.pr

Recovery of Fraudulent Legacies from Heirs and Claims

Passage 8270 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section explains that a fraudulently obtained legacy must be recovered from the wrongdoer's heir, and cites a decision by the Divine Marcus limiting the treasury's claim to nine-twelfths of the estate when an heir destroys a codicil.

[IDEM libro octauo disputationum. ] §48.10.4.prSi quis, cum falso sibi legatum adscribi curasset, decesserit, id heredi quoque extorquendum est.
[THE SAME, Disputations, Book VIII] If anyone, after having fraudulently arranged for a legacy to be written in his own favor, should die, this must be extorted from his heir as well.
inde diuus quoque Marcus, cum quidam a patre heres institutus codicillos intercidisset et decessisset, fisco tantum esse putauit uindicandum, quantum per codicillos erogari posset, id est usque ad dodrantem.
Hence the Divine Marcus also, when a certain person who had been appointed heir by his father destroyed a codicil and died, thought that only so much should be claimed for the treasury as could have been distributed through the codicil, that is, up to nine-twelfths of the estate.

Notes

  1. §48.10.4.prheredi — Dative of separation (dativus separationis) with the verb extorquere (to wrest, extort), meaning 'from the heir'. It functions similarly to an ablative of separation.
  2. §48.10.4.prcodicillos intercidisset — The verb intercidere here means 'to cut to pieces' or 'destroy'. It refers to the fraudulent act of destroying or suppressing a codicil (codicilli) by an heir to avoid paying the legacies charged therein.
  3. §48.10.4.prusque ad dodrantem — The noun dodrans refers to nine-twelfths (three-quarters) of an estate. Under the Lex Falcidia, an heir was entitled to retain at least one-quarter (quadrans) of the estate, meaning that the maximum amount that could be distributed through a codicil (and thus claimed by the treasury as a penalty) was three-quarters.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §48.10.4.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:48.10.4.pr

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