Gifts

  • Beneficium invito non datur. A privilege or benefit is not granted against a person’s will.
  • Beneficium non datum nisi propter officium. A remuneration is not given, unless on account of a duty performed.
  • Beneficium non datur nisi officii causa. A benefice is not granted except on account or in consideration of duty.
  • Beneficium principis debet esse mansurum. The benefaction of a prince ought to be lasting.
  • Donari videtur quod nullo jure cogente, conceditur. That is considered to be given which is granted without the obligation of any law.
  • Dona sunt quae, nulla necessitate iuris, officiis et sponte praestantur. Gifts are those things that are presented on one’s own initiative or from a sense of duty, not by legal obligation. Dig. 50.16.214.
  • Donator nunquam desinit possidere antequam donatarius incipiat possidere. A donor never ceases to have possession until the donee obtains possession.
  • Est justus possessor et petitor qui liberalitatem accepit. One who receives a gift of generosity, even when having sought it, has the right to claim it. Dig. 6.2.7.3.
  • Etiam per interpositam personam donatio consumari potest. Even through a third person a gift can be fulfilled. Dig. 39.5.4.
  • Gratus esse debet qui beneficium accepit. He who receives a gift ought to be grateful. Cicero, De provinciis consularibus 41.
  • In aedibus alienis habitare gratis donatio videtur. To live without giving payment in another’s house is seen as a gift. Dig. 39.5.9pr.
  • Inesse potest donationi modus, conditio sive causa; ut modus est; si conditio; quia causa. In a gift there may be manner, condition, or cause; as (ut) introduces a manner; if (si), a condition; because (quia), a cause.
  • Inter alias causas acquisitionis magna, celebris et famosa, est causa donationis. Among other modes of acquiring property, a great method, frequently used and well known, is that of gift.
  • Irritam facere donationem perfectam nemini licet. Nobody can make a gift invalid after it has been completed. CJ 7.27.3.
  • Legatum est donatio testamento relicta. A bequest is a gift left by a will. Dig. 31.36; cf. Just. Inst. 2.20.2.
  • Legatum morte testatoris tantum confirmatur, sicut donatio inter vivos traditione sola. A legacy is confirmed by the death of the testator, in the same manner as a gift from a living person is by delivery alone.
  • Mente captus donare non potest. A person with mental disability cannot make a gift. Dig. 39.5.23.1.
  • Modus legem dat donationi. Custom (or form) gives law to a gift.
  • Nec emere, nec donatum adsequi, nec damnosam quisquam hereditatem adire compellitur. Nobody is compelled to purchase an inheritance, take it when given, or accede to it when it is injurious. CJ 6.30.16.
  • Nec ignorans nec invitus quisquam donat. Nobody makes a gift unwittingly or unwillingly. CJ 8.53.10.
  • Ne liberalitatis suae donator poenam patiatur. The donor should not suffer a penalty for his generosity. Dig. 21.1.62 (referring to cases where a gift must be returned; the donor is not liable for any improvement the recipient has made).
  • Nemo praesumitur donare. No one is presumed to make a gift.
  • Nolenti non fit donatio. There is no gift to one who does not want it.
  • Non potest liberalitas nolenti acquiri. There can be no generosity to one who does not want it. Dig. 39.5.19.2.
  • Non valet donatio nisi subsequatur traditio. A gift is not valid unless delivery (or transference) follows.
  • Nul charter, nul vente, ne nul done vault perpetualment, si le donor n’est seise al temps de contracts de deux droits, sc. del droit de possession et del droit de properite. No grant, no sale, no gift, is valid forever unless the donor, at the time of the contract, is seised of two rights, namely, the right of possession and the right of property.
  • Oportet etiam quod certa res deducatur in donationem, quia incertae rei nulla est donatio. It is necessary that a certain thing be brought into the gift (or conveyance), for if the thing is uncertain, there is no gift. Bracton 2.62.
  • Perfecta donatio condiciones postea non capit. Once a gift has been fulfilled, conditions cannot attach. CJ 8.54.4.
  • Qui sciens solvit indebitum donandi consilio id videtur fecisse. A person who knowingly pays what is not due is considered to have done it with the intention of making a gift.
  • Quod aedificatur in area legata cedit legato. Whatever is built on land given by will passes with the gift of the land.
  • Quod datur personis cum personis amittitur. What is given to persons is lost with the persons. Dig. 43.20.1.43 (as opposed to what is given to estates, praedia).
  • Reversio terrae est tanquam terra revertens in possessione donatori sive haeredibus suis post donum finitum. A reversion of land is as it were the return of the land to the possession of the donor or his heirs after the termination of the gift.
  • Si donationis causa venditionis simulatus contractus est, emptio in sui deficit substantia. If there is a pretended contract for sale by way of a gift, the purchase is lacking in substance. CJ 4.38.3.
  • Simplex et pura donatio dici poterit ubi nulla est adjecta conditio nec modus. A gift is said to be pure and simple when no condition or qualification has been annexed.
  • Si plures conditiones ascriptae fuerunt donationi conjunctim, omnibus est parendum; et ad veritatem copulative requiritur quod utraque pars sit vera, si divisim, quilibet vel alteri eorum satis est obtemperare; et in disjunctivis, sufficit alteram partem esse veram. If several conditions are conjunctively written in a gift, the whole of them must be complied with; and with respect to their truth, it is necessary that every part be true, taken jointly: if the conditions are separate, it is sufficient to comply with either one or the other of them; and being disjunctive, that one or the other be true.
  • Sola ac per se senectus donationem, testamentum aut transactionem non vitiat. Old age does not alone and of itself vitiate gift, will or transaction.
  • Solemnitas intervenire debet in mutatione liberi tenementi, ne contingat donationem deficere pro defectu probationis. Solemnity (or formality) ought to be observed in an exchange of free tenement, lest it happen that the gift fail through want of proof. Co. Litt. 48a.
  • “Ut” modus est, “si” conditio, “quia” causa, inesse potest donationi modus conditio sive causa. In a gift there may be a manner, a condition, and a cause: the word “that” introduces a manner, the word “if,” a condition, and the word “because,” a cause. Co. Litt. 204a.
  • Venditiones, donationes, transactiones quae per potentiam extortae sunt praecipimus infirmari. Sales, gifts, or any transactions extorted by force we regard as impaired. CJ 2.19.12.
  • Voluntas donatoris in charta doni sui manifeste expressa observetur. The will of the donor, if clearly expressed in the deed of his gift, should be observed.
  • Warrantor potest excipere quod querens non tenet terram de qua petit warrantiam, et quod donum fuit insufficiens. A warrantor may object that the complainant does not hold the land of which he seeks the warranty, and that the gift was insufficient.