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Updated: May 18, 2025
The lex Furia and the lex Voconia were enactments designed to remedy the evil, but as both were found inadequate to the purpose, the lex Falcidia was finally passed, providing that no testator should be allowed to dispose of more than three-quarters of his property in legacies, or in other words, that whether there was a single heir instituted, or two or more, he or they should always be entitled to at least a quarter of the inheritance.
1 If two heirs, say Titius and Seius, are instituted, and Titius's share of the inheritance is either wholly exhausted in legacies specifically charged thereon, or burdened beyond the limit fixed by the statute, while no legacies at all are charged on Seius, or at any rate legacies which exhaust it only to the extent of one half or less, the question arose whether, as Seius has at least a quarter of the whole inheritance, Titius was or was not entitled to retain anything out of the legacies which had been charged upon him: and it was settled that he could keep an entire fourth of his share of the inheritance; for the calculation of the lex Falcidia is to be applied separately to the share of each of several heirs in the inheritance.
3 When the calculation of the lex Falcidia is made, the testator's debts and funeral expenses are first deducted, and the value of slaves whom he has manumitted in the will or directed to be manumitted is not reckoned as part of the inheritance; the residue is then divided so as to leave the heirs a clear fourth, the other three quarters being distributed among the legatees in proportion to the amount of the legacies given them respectively in the will.
We have finally to consider the lex Falcidia, the most recent enactment limiting the amount which can be given in legacies.
Also the so-called Lex Falcidia, which has the greatest force even still in regard to the succession to inheritances, was enacted by Publius Falcidius, a tribune: its terms are that if an heir feels oppressed in any way, he may secure at least a fourth, of the property left behind by surrendering the rest.
If, however, the mistake was entirely justifiable, and such as to have possibly misled even the discreetest of men, relief was afforded even to persons of full age, as in the case of a man who sues for the whole of a legacy, of which part is found to have been taken away by codicils subsequently discovered; or where such subsequently discovered codicils give legacies to other persons, so that, the total amount given in legacies being reduced under the lex Falcidia, the first legatee is found to have claimed more than the threefourths allowed by that statute.
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