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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §49.14.42.pr-49.14.42.1

Tacit Trust Claims and Penalties for Collusive Settlements

Passage 8563 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

On the ruling by the Prefect of the Treasury Severus concerning the right to report a tacit trust from confiscated property, and the senatorial decree imposing penalties on informers who illicitly settle with possessors and on fraudulent possessors.

[UALENS libro quinto fideicommissorum. ] §49.14.42.prArrianus Seuerus praefectus aerarii, cum eius, qui tacite rogatus fuerat non capienti fideicommissum reddere, bona publicata erant, pronuntiauit nihilo minus ius deferendi ex constitutione diui Traiani habere eum cui fideicommissum erat relictum.
[VALENS on Trusts, Book V.] Arrianus Severus, Prefect of the Treasury, when the property of a person who had been tacitly requested to restore a trust to one incapable of receiving it had been confiscated, declared that the person to whom the trust had been left nevertheless possessed the right of reporting it under the constitution of the Divine Trajan.
§49.14.42.1Quia autem nonnulli ingrati aduersus beneficium diui Traiani post professionem quoque de tacito fideicommisso factam cum possessoribus transigunt atque tribus edictis euocati non respondent, placuit senatui tantum ab eo qui id fecisset exigi, quantum apud aerarium ex ea causa quam detulerat remanere oporteret, si professionem suam implesset: et si possessoris quoque fraus apud praefectum conuicta fuisset, ab eo quoque quod conuictus inferre debuisset exigi.
But because some persons, ungrateful for the benefit of the Divine Trajan, even after having made a report concerning a tacit trust, make settlements with the possessors and, though summoned by three edicts, do not respond, the Senate resolved that there should be exacted from the person who had done this as much as ought to have remained in the treasury from the cause which he had reported if he had fulfilled his declaration; and if the fraud of the possessor should also be proved before the Prefect, there should also be exacted from him what he ought to have paid if convicted.

Notes

  1. §49.14.42.preius, qui tacite rogatus fuerat non capienti fideicommissum reddere — eius is a possessive genitive qualifying bona and serves as the antecedent of the relative pronoun qui. The clause tacite rogatus fuerat ('had been tacitly requested') refers to a tacit trust (tacitum fideicommissum) designed to circumvent the law by transferring the trust (reddere) to a person incapable of receiving it (non capienti).
  2. §49.14.42.prius deferendi — deferendi is the genitive of the gerund of deferre ('to report' or 'to denounce'), qualifying ius. In this context, it refers to the right to report or denounce the existence of an unlawful tacit trust to the treasury.
  3. §49.14.42.1tantum ab eo qui id fecisset exigi, quantum apud aerarium ex ea causa quam detulerat remanere oporteret — A correlative construction of tantum... quantum... The passive infinitive exigi is governed by the impersonal placuit senatui, with tantum serving as its grammatical subject (accusative). The phrase id fecisset refers to the preceding action of settling with the possessor after making a report and failing to appear. Accompanied by the pluperfect subjunctive conditional clause si professionem suam implesset ('if he had fulfilled his report'), it mandates that the amount which would have remained in the treasury had the denunciation succeeded be exacted from the informant who settled illicitly.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §49.14.42.pr-49.14.42.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:49.14.42.pr-49.14.42.1

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