Fidei Commissum - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition fidei-commissum

Definition :

Fidei-commissum, a testamentary disposition, by which a person who gives a thing to another imposes on him the obligation of transferring it to a third person. The obligation wass not created bywords of legal binding force (civilia verba), but by words of request (precative), such as 'fidei committo,' 'peto,' 'volo dari,' and the like, which were the operative words (verba utilia). If the object of the fidei-commissum was the h'reditas, the whole or a part, it was called fidei-commissaria h'reditas, which is equivalent to a universal fidei-commissum; if it was a single thing, or a sum of money, it was called fidei-commissum singul' rei. The obligation to transfer the former could only be imposed on the heirs; the obligation of transferring the latter might be imposed on a legatee. It appears that there were no legal means of enforcing the due discharge of the trust called fidei-commissum till the time of Augustus, who gave the consuls jurisdiction in the fidei-commissa. Fidei-commissa seem to have been introduced in order to evade the Civil Law, and to give the h'reditas, or a legacy, to a person who was either incapacitated from taking directly, or who could not take as much as the donor wished to give. Gaius when observing that peregrini could take fidei-commissa, observes that 'this' (the object of evading the law) 'was probably the origin of fidei-commissa were claimed by the fiscus. Fidei-commissa; but by a senatus-consultum, made in the time of Hadriam, such fidei-commissa were ultimately assimilated to legacies, Gaius, ii. 247-289; Ulp. Frag. tit. 25; Sand. Just.

An arrangement similar to a trust by which a testator gave property to a person for the benefit of another who could not by law, inherit property, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 639.