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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §8.6.19.pr-8.6.19.1

Loss of Reserved Water Rights and Transfer of Bequeathed Rights

Passage 1505 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Discusses the extinction of a reserved water easement depending on construction versus non-use, and the transfer of a bequeathed right of way to a buyer when the legatee sells the land before discovering the bequest.

[POMPONIUS libro trigensimo secundo ad Sabinum. ] §8.6.19.prSi partem fundi uendendo lege cauerim, uti per eam partem in reliquum fundum meum aquam ducerem, et statutum tempus intercesserit, antequam riuum facerem, nihil iuris amitto, quia nullum iter aquae fuerit, sed manet mihi ius integrum: quod si fecissem iter neque usus essem, amittam.
[POMPONIUS, from the thirty-second book on Sabinus.] If, in selling a part of a tract of land, I have provided by a contract term that I might conduct water through that part to my remaining land, and the prescribed period has elapsed before I constructed a channel, I lose no right, because no watercourse existed, but my right remains intact; whereas if I had constructed the watercourse and had not used it, I shall lose it.
§8.6.19.1Si per fundum meum uiam tibi legauero et adita mea hereditate per constitutum tempus ad amittendam seruitutem ignoraueris eam tibi legatam esse, amittes uiam non utendo.
If I bequeath to you a right of way through my land, and, after my inheritance has been entered upon, you remain ignorant throughout the period prescribed for the loss of a servitude that it has been bequeathed to you, you will lose the right of way by non-use.
quod si intra idem tempus, antequam rescrires tibi legatam seruitutem, tuum fundum uendideris ad emptorem uia pertinebit, si reliquo tempore ea usus fuerit, quia scilicet tua esse coeperat: ut iam nec ius repudiandi legatum tibi possit contingere, cum ad te fundus non pertineat.
But if, within the same period, before you know that the servitude has been bequeathed to you, you sell your land, the right of way will belong to the buyer if he uses it during the remaining time, because, of course, it had begun to be yours; so that the right to reject the bequest can no longer belong to you, since the land does not belong to you.

Notes

  1. §8.6.19.prquod si — A conjunctional phrase meaning "whereas if" or "but if", introducing a contrast with the preceding clause (where no right is lost before construction) and leading into the subjunctive pluperfect fecissem ("if I had constructed").
  2. §8.6.19.1adita mea hereditate — An ablative absolute construction using the perfect participle of adeo (to enter upon, accept), meaning "after my inheritance has been accepted/entered upon". This represents the condition under which the bequest (legatum) becomes effective (dies uenit).
  3. §8.6.19.1rescrires — A scribal variant or error for rescires, the second-person singular imperfect subjunctive of rescisco ("to find out", "to come to know"). Contextually, it means "before you came to know" that the servitude had been bequeathed.
  4. §8.6.19.1tua esse coeperat — The subject is the feminine noun "servitude" (seruitus). It explains that even if the legatee was unaware of the bequest, the servitude had already "begun to be yours" as an appurtenance to the legatee's land from the moment the inheritance was accepted, and thus it transfers to the buyer upon the sale of the land.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §8.6.19.pr-8.6.19.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:8.6.19.pr-8.6.19.1

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