Si pendente appellatione mors intervenerit
(If Death Should Occur While an Appeal is Pending.)
1Macer, On Appeals, Book II. Where the appellant dies without leaving an heir, an appeal of this kind is extinguished. If, however, an heir of the appellant should appear, and no one else has any interest in stating the ground for the appeal, the heir cannot be forced to prosecute it. But when the Treasury, or any other party against whom the appeal was taken, is interested in the case, the heir will be required to state the grounds for the appeal. No one has any interest, where, for example, the party has been relegated without having been deprived of his property. In case he should be relegated after having been deprived of his property, or be deported to an island, or sentenced to the mines, or should die after the appeal was taken, our Emperor Alexander made the following statement in a Rescript addressed to Pletorius, a soldier, as being applicable: “Although, while the appeal is pending, the accusation of the defendant is annulled by death, still, as it is alleged that a part of his property has been confiscated under the judgment, be who is entitled to the benefit of the succession can only obtain it if he gives good reasons for the appeal, and establishes the injustice of the decision.” 1If a guardian, after having taken an appeal pertaining to the business of his ward, should die, his heir will be compelled to state the grounds for the appeal, even if he has already rendered his account of the guardianship, for the reason that it is sufficient that he would have been obliged to state the grounds for it at the time of his death. The Divine Severus and Antoninus, however, stated in a Rescript that a guardian, after having rendered his accounts, should not be compelled to set forth the grounds of the appeal.