FAMILIAE EMPTOR

familiae emptor (f<<schwa>>-mil-ee-ee emp-tor). [Latin “estate purchaser”] Roman law. A

trustee who received an inheritance by a fictitious purchase and distributed it as the testator

instructed. — Also termed emptor familiae. See mancipatory will under WILL.

“At some date, probably long before the XII Tables, men on the point of death, unable to

make a true will because there was no imminent sitting of the Comitia, adopted the practice of

conveying all their property … to a person who is described as the familiae emptor, and who is

said by Gaius to be in loco heredis. Instructions were no doubt given to him as to the disposal of

the property or part of it, but it is not clear that these were enforceable ….” W.W. Buckland, A

Manual of Roman Private Law 175 (2d ed. 1953).[Blacks Law 8th]