Latin
Lines 1.592-1.596
Roman Law and Society, The Institutes of Justinian 1.592-596
Not analysed yet
7. When it is asked whether such a person is a suus heres, we must look to the time at which it was certain that the deceased died without a testament, including therein the case of the testament being abandoned. Thus, if a son is disinherited and a stranger is instituted heir, and after the death of the son it becomes certain that the instituted heir will not be heir, either because he is unwilling or unable to be so, in this case the grandson of the deceased becomes the suus heres of his grandfather; for, at the time when it was certain that the deceased died intestate, there exists only the grandchild, and of this there can be no doubt.
8. And although a child is born after the death of his grandfather, yet, if he was conceived in the lifetime of his grandfather, he will, if his father is dead, and his grandfather's testament abandoned, become the suus heres of his grandfather. But a child both conceived and born after the death of his grandfather, could not become the suus heres, although his father should die and the testament of his grandfather be abandoned; because he was never allied to his grandfather by any tie of relationship. Neither is a person adopted by an emancipated son to be reckoned among the children of the father of his adoptive father. And not only are these adoptive children of an emancipated son incapable of taking the inheritance as children of the deceased grandfather, but they cannot demand possession of the goods as the nearest agnati. Thus much concerning sui heredes.
9. Emancipated children by the civil law have no right to the inheritance of their father; being no longer under the power of their parent, they are not his sui heredes, nor are they called to inherit by any other right under the law of the Twelve Tables. But the praetor, obeying natural equity, grants them the possession of goods called unde liberi, as if they had been under the power of their father at the time of his death, and this, whether they stand alone, or whether there are also others, who are sui heredes. Thus, when there are two children, one thus emancipated, and the other under power at his father's death, the latter, by the civil law, is alone the heir, and alone the suus heres: but, as the emancipated son, by the indulgence of the praetor, is admitted to his share, the suus heres becomes heir only of a part.