[PAULUS libro quinto epitomarum Alfeni digestorum. ] §8.2.33.prEum debere columnam restituere, quae onus uicinarum aedium ferebat, cuius essent aedes quae seruirent, non eum, qui imponere uellet.
[PAULUS, in the fifth book of the Epitomes of Alfenus' Digests.] The person who ought to restore the column that supported the weight of the neighboring building is the owner of the building which is subject to the servitude, and not the person who wishes to place the weight upon it.
nam cum in lege aedium ita scriptum esset: 'paries oneri ferundo uti nunc est, ita sit', satis aperte significari in perpetuum parietem esse debere: non enim hoc his uerbis dici, ut in perpetuum idem paries aeternus esset, quod ne fieri quidem posset, sed uti eiusdem modi paries in perpetuum esset qui onus sustineret: quemadmodum si quis alicui cauisset, ut seruitutem praeberet, qui onus suum sustineret, si ea res quae seruit et unum onus ferret, perisset, alia in locum eius dari debeat.
For when it was written in the law of the buildings: 'The wall for bearing the weight shall remain as it now is,' it is sufficiently clearly indicated that a wall must exist in perpetuity. For it is not meant by these words that the selfsame wall should be eternal in perpetuity (which indeed is impossible), but that a wall of the same kind, which would support the weight, should exist in perpetuity. Just as if someone had agreed with another to provide a servitude which would support his weight, if that thing which is subject to the servitude and bore the weight should perish, another thing must be given in its place.