Bona Cadūca
Caducum (from
cado) signifies “that which falls,”
and in its general legal sense might be anything without an owner, or what the person entitled
to neglected to take (
De Or. iii. 31;
Phil. x. 5); but the strict legal sense of
caducum
and
bona caduca is that stated by Ulpian (
Fragm. tit.
xvii.
de caducis), which is as follows:
If a thing is left by will to a person, so that he might take it by the
ius
civile, but from some cause does not take it, that thing is called
caducum, as if it had fallen from him; for instance, if a legacy was left to an
unmarried person, or a
Latinus Iunianus, and the unmarried person did not
within a hundred days obey the law (i. e. by marrying), or if within the
same time the
Latinus did not obtain the
ius Quiritium, or if a
heres ex parte or a legatee died or became a
peregrinus before the opening of the will, the thing was
caducum.
Caducum, or lapse of a devise, implies that a valid devise has been made,
which the devisee is unable or unwilling to take.
Caducum further implies that the will of which the lapsed devise is a part
has come into operation. Strictly speaking, a devise which failed in the testator's lifetime
was not
caducum; it was, however, treated like a
caducum, and so said to be
in causa caduci (
Cod.
vi. 51, 2).
Either a share of an inheritance or a particular
legatum might become
caducum. The law alluded to in the passage of Ulpian cited above is the
Lex Iulia et Papia Poppaea. This law, which was passed in the time of Augustus (A.D. 9), had
the double object of encouraging marriages and enriching the treasury—
aerarium (
Tac. Ann. iii.
25）—and contained with reference to these two objects a great number of
provisions. Martial (v. 75) alludes to a person who married in order to comply with the law.
For the
dos caduca, see
Dos.
