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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §5.2.24.pr

Different Judgments and Partial Testacy in Inofficious Wills

Passage 988 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Ulpian points out that in complaints regarding inofficious testaments, if the instituted heirs hold different legal statuses, different judgments may be rendered in the same case, resulting in the deceased being deemed partly testate and partly intestate.

[ULPIANUS libro quadragensimo octauo ad Sabinum. ] §5.2.24.prCirca inofficiosi querellam euenire plerumque adsolet, ut in una atque eadem causa diuersae sententiae proferantur.
[ULPIANUS in his Forty-Eighth Book on Sabinus.] Regarding the complaint of an inofficious testament, it very frequently happens that different judgments are pronounced in one and the same case.
quid enim si fratre agente heredes scripti diuersi iuris fuerunt? quod si fuerit, pro parte testatus, pro parte intestatus decessisse uidebitur.
For what if, when a brother brings the action, the instituted heirs were of different legal standing? If this should happen, the deceased will be deemed to have died partly testate and partly intestate.

Notes

  1. §5.2.24.prfratre agente — Ablative absolute with the present participle agente. Here agere has the technical legal meaning "to bring an action or lawsuit," translating to "when a brother brings the action."
  2. §5.2.24.prdiuersi iuris — Genitive of quality (or description) functioning as the predicate of fuerunt, indicating that the instituted heirs held different legal statuses or positions relative to the claimant.
  3. §5.2.24.prpro parte testatus, pro parte intestatus — Adverbial phrases modifying the infinitive decessisse (to have died). It represents an exceptional legal fiction where a deceased is deemed to have died partly testate and partly intestate, contrary to the general Roman law maxim that no one can die both testate and intestate.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §5.2.24.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:5.2.24.pr

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