heres scriptus vel legatarius ante apertas tabulas decesserit vel pereger factus sit, Ulpian, 17, 1. A vacant devise or bequest is one valid at civil law, but lapsed by some statute, such as a legacy to a celibate or Latinus Junianus, who fails within a hundred days to comply with the law, or acquire full citizenship; or a devise to a coheir, or bequest to a legatee who dies or becomes an alien before the will is opened.' [By the Civil law, unconditional devises and bequests vested (dies cedit) at the death of the testator (though still defeasible by the failure of the will); by the lex Papia Poppaea not before the opening of the will.] The leges caducariae, which fixed the conditions of caducity, were aimed against the coelebs and the orbus. Coelebs is defined to be an unmarried man between the age of twenty and sixty, or an unmarried woman between the age of twenty and fifty. Orbus is a man between fifty and sixty without children, natural or adoptive. A celibate could take nothing as heres extraneus or legatee; an orbus could only take half of the devise or bequest intended for him. The devises thus vacant were allotted by the leges caducariae in the first place to conjoint legatees of the same specific thing with children; in the second place to heirs with children; in the third place to other legatees with children; and in last remainder to the treasury (aerarium). Caracalla, A.D. 212-217, made them lapse immediately to the treasury: Hodie ex constitutione imperatoris Antonini omnia caduca fisco vindicantur, sed servato jure antiquo liberis et parentibus, Ulpian, 17, 2. At present by a constitution of Caracalla, all vacant devises are confiscated, saving the rights of parents and children.' From the rules of caducity ascendants and descendants of the testator to the third degree were excepted both by the lex Papia and by the constitution of Caracalla. Constantine, A.D. 320, abolished the pains and penalties of celibacy and childlessness, Cod. 8, 58, and Justinian formally and finally abrogated the leges caducariae. By substitutions or alternative institutions testators were able to modify the course of accrual by Civil law (jus accrescendi), and what perhaps was still more interesting, to escape from the operation of the laws of caducity, by which sometimes a whole inheritance might fall into the clutches of the treasury. DE LEGATIS. § 191. Post haec videamus de legatis. Quae pars iuris extra propositam quidem materiam videtur; nam loquimur de his iuris figuris quibus per universitatem res nobis adquiruntur. sed cum omnimodo de testamentis deque heredibus qui testamento instituuntur locuti sumus, non sine causa sequenti loco poterat haec iuris materia tractari. § 192. Legatorum utique genera sunt quattuor: aut enim per vindicationem legamus, aut per damnationem, aut sinendi modo, aut per praeceptionem. § 193. Per vindicationem hoc modo legamus: LUCIO TITIO Verbi gratia HOMINEM STICHUM DO LEGO. sed et si alterutrum verbum positum sit, velut: hominem Stichum do, per vindicationem legatum est. si vero etiam aliis verbis velut ita legatum fuerit: sumito, vel ita: sibi habeto, vel ita: CAPITO, aeque per vindicationem legatum est. § 194. Ideo autem per vindicationem legatum appellatur, quia post aditam hereditatem statim ex iure Quiritium res legatarii fit; et si eam rem legatarius vel ab herede vel ab alio quocumque qui eam possidet petat, vindicare debet, id est intendere eam rem suam ex iure Quiritium esse. § 195. In eo vero dissentiunt prudentes, quod Sabinus quidem et Cassius ceterique nostri praeceptores quod ita legatum sit statim post aditam hereditatem putant fieri legatarii, etiamsi ignoret sibi legatum esse dimissum, et postea quam scierit et repudiaverit, tum perinde esse atque si legatum non esset Nerva vero et Proculus ceterique illius scholae auctores non aliter putant rem legatarii fieri, quam si voluerit eam ad se pertinere. Sed hodie ex divi Pii Antonini constitu § 191. Let us now examine legacies, a kind of title which seems foreign to the matter in hand, for we are expounding titles whereby aggregates of rights are acquired; but we had at any rate to treat of wills and heirs appointed by will, and it was natural in close connection therewith to consider this species of title [for a legacy is an accessory of a will]. $192. Legacies are of four kinds; by vindication, by condemnation, by permission, by preception. § 193. A legacy by vindication is in the following form: To Lucius Titius I give and bequeath, say, my slave Stichus,' or only one word need be used as, 'I give my slave Stichus; and other terms such as: 'Let him take,' 'Let him have,' 'Let him seize,' equally confer a legacy by vindication. § 194. It is so called, because immediately on the acceptance of the succession the thing becomes the Quiritarian property of the legatee, and if he claims it from the heir or any other possessor, he ought to bring a real action, that is, declare himself proprietor thereof by law of the Quirites. § 195. However, there is a controversy on this matter between jurists, for, according to Sabinus and Cassius and the other authorities of my school, what is thus left becomes the property of the legatee immediately on the acceptance of the succession, even before he has notice of the legacy, and on notice and repudiation by the legatee, the legacy is cancelled. Nerva and Proculus and the jurists of that school make the passing of the property to the legatee depend on his tione hoc magis iure uti videmur quod Proculo placuit. nam cum legatus fuisset Latinus per vindicationem coloniae deliberent, inquit, decuriones an ad se velint pertinere, proinde ac si uni legatus esset. § 196. Eae autem solae res per vindicationem legantur recte quae ex iure Quiritium ipsius testatoris sunt. sed eas quidem res quae pondere, numero, mensura constant, placuit sufficere si mortis tempore sint ex iure Quiritium testatoris, veluti vinum, oleum, frumentum, pecuniam numeratam. ceteras res vero placuit utroque tempore testatoris ex iure Quiritium esse debere, id est et quo faceret testamentum et quo moreretur: alioquin inutile est legatum. § 197. Sed sane hoc ita est iure civili. Postea vero auctore Nerone Caesare senatusconsultum factum est, quo cautum est, ut si eam rem quisque legaverit quae eius numquam fuerit, perinde utile sit legatum, atque si optimo iure relictum esset. optumum autem ius est per damnationem legatum; quo genere etiam aliena res legari potest, sicut inferius apparebit. § 198. Sed si quis rem suam legaverit, deinde post testamentum factum eam alienaverit, plerique putant non solum iure civili inutile esse legatum, sed nec ex senatusconsulto confirmari. quod ideo dictum est, quia etsi per damnationem aliquis rem suam legaverit eamque postea alienaverit, plerique putant, licet ipso iure debeatur legatum, tamen legatarium petentem per exceptionem doli mali repelli quasi contra voluntatem defuncti petat. accepting the legacy; and now a constitution of the late emperor Pius Antoninus seems to have established the doctrine of Proculus as the rule, for in the case of a Latinus Junianus bequeathed by vindication to a colony, he said, 'The senate must deliberate whether they wish to become proprietors just as if the bequest was to an individual.' § 196. Only those things are properly bequeathed by vindication which are the Quiritarian property of the testator; things, however, estimated by weight, number, or measure, need only be the Quiritarian property of the testator at the time of his death, for instance, wine, oil, corn, ready-money: other things are required to be the testator's Quiritarian property at both periods, both at the time of his death and at the time of making his will, or the legacy is void. § 197. However, this is only the civil law. In later times, on the proposition of Nero, a senatusconsult was passed, providing that if a testator bequeathed a thing which never belonged to him, the bequest should be as valid as if it were made in the most favourable form; the most favourable form being by condemnation, whereby the property of another person may be bequeathed, as will presently appear. $198. If a man bequeath a thing belonging to him, and afterwards aliene it, most jurists agree that the bequest is not only avoided at civil law, but recovers no validity by the senatusconsult, because, even when a thing is bequeathed by condemnation and afterwards aliened, although the bequest is valid at civil law, it is generally agreed that the claim of the legatee would be repelled by the plea of fraud, as contravening the testator's intention. $ 199. Illud constat, si duobus pluribusve per vindicationem eadem res legata sit, sive coniunctim sive disiunctim, si omnes veniant ad legatum, partes ad singulos pertinere, et deficientis portionem collegatario adcrescere. coniunctim autem ita legatur: TITIO ET SEIO HOMINEM STICHUM DO LEGO; disiunctim ita: LUCIO TITIO HOMINEM STICHUM DO LEGO. SEIO EUNDEM HOMINEM DO LEGO. § 200. Illud quaeritur, quod sub condicione per vindicationem legatum est, pendente condicione cuius esset. Nostri praeceptores heredis esse putant exemplo statuliberi, id est eius servi qui testamento sub aliqua condicione liber esse iussus est, quem constat interea heredis servum esse. sed diversae scholae auctores putant nullius interim eam rem esse; quod multo magis dicunt de eo quod sine condicione pure legatum est, antequam legatarius admittat legatum. §201. Per damnationem hoc modo legamus: HERES MEUS STI CHUM SERVUM MEUM DARE DAMNAS ESTO. sed et si DATO scriptum sit, per damnationem legatum est. § 202. Quo genere legati etiam aliena res legari potest, ita ut heres redimere et praestare aut aestimationem eius dare debeat. § 203. Ea quoque res quae in rerum natura non est, si modo futura est, per damnationem legari potest, velut fructus qui in illo fundo nati erunt, aut quod ex illa ancilla natum erit. $204. Quod autem ita legatum est, post aditam hereditatem, etiamsi pure legatum est, non ut per vindicationem legatum continuo legatario adquiritur, sed nihilominus heredis est ideo legatarius in per § 199. It is a settled rule, that if the same thing be bequeathed by vindication to two or more persons, whether jointly or severally, and all claim the legacy, each is only entitled to a ratable part, and a lapsed portion accrues to the colegatees. A joint bequest is as follows: "To Titius and Seius I give and bequeath my slave Stichus;' a several bequest as follows: To Lucius Titius I give and bequeath my slave Stichus. To Seius I give and bequeath the same slave.' § 200. When a condition is annexed to a bequest by vindication, it is a question who, pending the condition, is the owner: my school say, the heir, as in the case of the slave conditionally enfranchised by will, who is admitted to be in the interim the property of the heir: the other school assert that there is no interim proprietor, and they insist still more strongly that this is so in the case of an unconditional simple bequest before the acceptance by the legatee. $201. A legacy by condemnation is in the following form: 'Be my heir condemned to give my slave Stichus,' or simply, 'Let my heir give my slave Stichus.' § 202. By this form a testator may bequeath a thing belonging to another person, binding the heir to purchase and deliver the specific thing, or pay its value. § 203. A thing which does not exist but will exist, may be bequeathed by condemnation, as the produce of such and such land, or the child of such and such female slave. § 204. Bequests in this form, even though no condition is annexed, unlike bequests by vindicacation, are not forthwith on the acceptance of the succession the property of the legatee, but continue the property of the heir, and the legatee must sue for them by personal action, that is, declare that the heir is bound to convey, and the heir, if the thing is mancipable, must convey it by mancipation or default in a fictitious vindication and livery of seisin; if not mancipable, by mere delivery of possession: for if a mancipable thing is merely delivered without mancipation, usucapion is required to give plenary dominion to the legatee, and usucapion, as before mentioned, in the case of movables requires a year's possession, in the case of immovables two years' possession. § 205. There is another difference between bequest by vindication and bequest by condemnation herein, that if the same thing is bequeathed to two or more by condemnation, if they are named jointly, each is entitled to a ratable part, as in legacy by vindication; if severally, each is entitled to the whole, and the heir is bound to convey the specific thing to one, and the value to the other; and in a joint bequest a lapsed portion does not accrue to the colegatee, but belongs to the heir. § 206. The statement that a lapsed portion in legacy by condemnation falls to the heir, and in legacy by vindication accrues to the colegatee, be it observed, gives the rule of the civil law before the lex Papia; but since the lex Papia, a lapsed portion becomes vacant, and belongs to the devisees who have children. § 207. And although the first title to a vacant legacy is that of heirs with children, and the second, if the heirs are childless, of legatees with children, yet the lex Papia itself declares that in a joint bequest a legatee with children |