THE FIFTH [PART], CONCERNING TESTAMENTS:

in which it is treated of Testaments, codicils, institutions, substitutions, legacies, trusts fideicommissis fiduciary bequests, their species, conditions, and so forth.

LIB. XXVIII.

Actions for successors or quasi-successors: competent to heirs, trustees fideicommissariis beneficiaries of a trust, and legatees from a formal or less formal testament according to civil law.

What is required so that the last will of the testator may be just and lawful.

On testaments, who can make them, and in what manner, that is, by what solemnities they are made 1. 1. 31.

On instituting or disinheriting children and posthumous heirs, namely in a testament 2. 1. 32. Otherwise, the omission of children immediately makes a testament unjust, or the testament is invalidated by the birth of a posthumous child.

On the unjust testament: it is unjust if it lacks solemnities, or is invalidated by the birth of a posthumous child previously omitted, or by other modes comprehended in this title, or by the civil death capitis diminutione loss of status of the testator, or if the inheritance is deserted 3. 1. 20. It is called imperfect if it is subscribed or sealed by witnesses. It is deserted if no one enters upon the inheritance.

On those things which are erased in a testament, such as those corrupted by blots, or those introduced by cancellation, or those inscribed, that is, with other letters: for those are superscript which take the place of those deleted 4. 1. 4. By all these means, a testament is made void.

On instituting heirs 5. 1. 92, namely strangers.

On the common substitution, which can be made for anyone and by anyone, and the pupillary substitution, which a father makes for a son under 14 years of age: for a father can substitute for his son at that age 6. 1. 48.

On conditions, which suspend that which is being treated, of institutions 7. 1. 28. A condition is impossible by law or nature whenever it is admitted by neither, and therefore it is considered as not added: a possible condition is conferred either into the power of the heir, or into a case, or into both. Strangers can be instituted under these conditions; if the condition fails, the institution fails; if it exists, it is valid.

On the right, that is, the space of time, for deliberating; that is, given by the testator to the heir to deliberate and determine whether he will enter upon or repudiate the inheritance 8. 1. 11.

LIB. XXIX.

On the testament of a soldier 1. 1. 45, in which the common rules of civil law are not observed as they are in the testament of a civilian.

On acquiring, once I have deliberated, or omitting the inheritance 2. 1. 98. Entering and repudiating for strangers, involving oneself and abstaining for one's own.

In what manner testaments are opened, inspected, and transcribed 3. 1. 12. It is necessary for this to be done for the sake of deliberation and entry. Moreover, we use the twentieth-penny law and an extraordinary remedy against one who confesses that the documents are in his possession but alleges no reason why he does not exhibit them. Likewise, by interdict concerning the exhibition of documents if he denies or litigates, and that is sought by law, because testaments are a public instrument.

If anyone omits the cause of the testament, that is, if any near relative or agnate, having omitted the inheritance offered to him by the testament, by which he perceived himself to be burdened with restoring certain things to legatees, possesses the inheritance that is, prefers to possess it intestate or in another manner 4. 1. 30, so as to avoid the burdens of the legacies, a useful action is given against him to the legatee just as if he had entered upon the inheritance by the testament.

The removal of the entire inheritance, or when an entire inheritance may be taken from someone.

On the S.C. Syllanianum Senate decree concerning the investigation of slaves, made in the time of Augustus, and the Claudian [decree], by which indeed the Syllanian was confirmed in the times of Nero, whence it is also called the Neronian and Pisonian, or whose testaments may not be opened, that is, of one who was killed within his household: for his testament is not opened before the examination is held concerning the slaves who were under the same roof, and before punishment is taken for the killer: otherwise, the inheritance would be taken from the heir as from an unworthy person 5. 1. 27. And this was introduced so that the heir would not conceal the crime of the household for his own gain.

If anyone has prohibited or compelled someone to testify 6. 1. 3. That the inheritance be taken from him as an unworthy person.

On codicils 7. 1. 20, that is, on a less formal testament.

LIB. XXX.

How a part of an inheritance can be taken away, and on the removal of the inheritance.

On legacies in general, by which a part of the inheritance is diminished.

For a legacy is a lessening of the inheritance.

On legacies and trusts fideicommissis fiduciary bequests 1. 1. 113. Here it is treated what and how much may be bequeathed.

LIB. XXXI.

On legacies and trusts 11. 2. 1. 93. Here it is treated who may bequeath to whom, by whom, in what words one may bequeath and be bequeathed, or concerning the persons of the testator and the legatees.

LIB. XXXII.

On legacies and trusts 111. 3. 1. 101. Here it is treated concerning the signification of words pertaining both to persons and to bequeathed things.

LIB. XXXIII.

On special legacies.

On annual and monthly legacies and trusts 1. 1. 29.

On the use, usufruct, income, habitation, and the legacy of labor, or trusts left behind 2. 1. 43.

On legacy of urban and rural servitude 3. 1. 7.

On the legacy of a dowry dote prelegata dowry bequeathed in priority 4. 1. 18. It is so called because when one's own property is bequeathed to a wife, it is returned rather than bequeathed.

On the option, which ought to be done publicly, or the choice, which was arbitrary, of legacies 5. 1. 22. One is compelled to choose once the inheritance is added, after which there is no room for repentance.

On wheat, wine, or oil bequeathed 6. 1. 16.

On an equipped farm or bequeathed equipment 7. 1. 29.

On a legacy of a peculium 8. 1. 26, that is, what comes under the name of a bequeathed peculium.

On bequeathed provisions 9. 1. 7. Under the name of provisions, those things gathered for drink and food are understood.

On bequeathed furniture 10. 1. 14.

LIB. XXXIV.

On food, the legacy of which is more extensive, and bequeathed victuals 1. 1. 23.

On gold, silver, attire, ornaments, clothing, garments, and statues bequeathed 2. 1. 42.

On a legacy of release, namely to a debtor 3. 1. 32.

Diminution or loss of particular and universal legacies.

On taking away or transferring legacies and trusts 4. 1. 32.

On doubtful things 5. 1. 30. Ambiguity of the writing renders a legacy null. Here it is treated of ambiguous speech in legacies and when a legacy is made to uncertain persons.

On those things which are left for the sake of piety 6. 1. 2. Legacies of this kind are valid today, unless shameful and illicit conditions have been added.

On the Catonian rule 7. 1. 5, by which legacies do not fail as they did under the lapsed Julian and Pappian laws, but legacies fall due from the death of the testator.

On those things which are taken away as from unworthy persons 8. 1. 25, which are called seized erepticia removed by law.

LIB. XXXV.

On the conditions, demonstrations, causes, and modes of those things which are inscribed in a testament 1. 1. 112. Legacies also fail if the condition under which they were left fails.

On the Falcidian law Ad leg. Falcidiam concerning the Falcidian quarter 2. 1. 95, which prescribed a civil limit for legacies, namely three-quarters, from which the heir deducts the fourth, which is called the Falcidian portion.

If it is said that more has been bequeathed to someone than allowed by the Falcidian law 3. 1. 9. He will give security, namely that they will give as much money as that thing will be worth.

LIB. XXXVI.

On the Trebellian senate decree 1. 1. 81, by which the heir, having been ordered to return the inheritance by testament to the trustee, will retain his own fourth. By this senate decree, a universal legacy is diminished, just as the Falcidian [diminishes] particular [legacies].

When the day for legacies or trusts falls due 2. 1. 31, that is, that both begin to be owed from the death of the testator.

That security be given for the sake of preserving legacies or trusts 3. 1. 18, namely where delay in paying the legacy is introduced due to an added condition or date, which was introduced so that the thing might be in a safer place for the legatees.

That it may be permitted to be in possession for the sake of preserving legacies or trusts 4. 1. 15. Otherwise, the edicts of the Praetors which protect the right of legacies would be ridiculous if they were not fortified by execution, which the Praetor intended: either that security be given to the legatees, or if security is not given, that one be put into possession.