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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §9.2.36.pr-9.2.36.1

Actions on Legacy Rejection and Wounded Freed Slaves

Passage 1553 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Marcellus discusses the scope of actions when one co-legatee rejects a legacy, and examines the transmissibility of a Lex Aquilia action when a mortally wounded slave is freed and appointed heir prior to his death.

[MARCELLUS libro uicensimo primo digestorum. ] §9.2.36.prnam sicut repudiante legatario legatum heredis est actio perinde ac si legatus non esset, ita huius actio est ac si soli legatus esset.
[MARCELLUS, in the twenty-first book of the Digests.] For just as, when a legatee rejects a legacy, the action belongs to the heir just as if there had been no legacy, so the action of this one lies just as if it had been bequeathed to him alone.
§9.2.36.1Si dominus seruum, quem Titius mortifere uulnerauerat, liberum et heredem esse iusserit eique postea Maeuius exstiterit heres, non habebit Maeuius cum Titio legis Aquiliae actionem, scilicet secundum Sabini opinionem, qui putabat ad heredem actionem non transmitti, quae defuncto competere non potuit: nam sane absurdum accidet, ut heres pretium quasi occisi consequatur eius, cuius heres exstitit.
If a master should order a slave, whom Titius had mortally wounded, to be free and his heir, and Maevius afterwards becomes heir to him, Maevius will not have an action under the Lex Aquilia against Titius, namely according to the opinion of Sabinus, who thought that an action is not transmitted to an heir which could not have accrued to the deceased; for it would indeed be absurd for an heir to obtain the value as of one killed of the person whose heir he has become.
quod si ex parte eum dominus heredem cum libertate esse iusserit, coheres eius mortuo eo aget lege Aquilia.
But if the master ordered him to be heir to a share along with freedom, his co-heir, after his death, will sue under the Lex Aquilia.

Notes

  1. §9.2.36.prrepudiante legatario legatum — An ablative absolute construction formed by the present participle 'repudiante' and the noun 'legatario', serving as a conditional clause: 'when a legatee rejects a legacy'.
  2. §9.2.36.prhuius — A genitive pronoun referring to 'this person' (the co-legatee who accepted), who, in the context of the previous section (35.pr) and this clause, becomes the sole legatee retroactively due to the other's rejection.
  3. §9.2.36.1eique — Consisting of the dative pronoun 'ei' and the conjunction '-que'. Here, 'ei' refers back to the 'seruum' who was freed and appointed heir by his master. It marks the chain of inheritance where Maevius becomes the heir of this deceased freedman.
  4. §9.2.36.1quae defuncto competere non potuit — A relative clause qualifying 'actionem'. The 'defuncto' (deceased) refers to the freed slave. Since the injury occurred while he was a slave and he died a free man, no action under the Lex Aquilia could have accrued to him during his lifetime; thus, according to Sabinian doctrine, no action can be transmitted to his heir, Maevius.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §9.2.36.pr-9.2.36.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:9.2.36.pr-9.2.36.1

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