BŎNA CĂDŪCA

Caducum literally signifies that which falls: thus glans caduca is the mast which falls from a tree. The strict legal sense of caducum and bona caduca is as follows:—If a thing is left by testament to a person, so that he can take it by the jus civile, but from some cause has not taken it, that thing is called caducum , as if it had fallen from him. Or if a heres ex parte , or a legatee, died before the opening of the will, the thing was caducum . That which was caducum came, in the first place, to those among the heredes who had children; and if the heredes had no children, it came among those of the legatees who had children. In case there was no prior claimant the caducum belonged to the aerarium; and subsequently to the fisc us. [ Aerarium . ]