USUFRUCT. — It is the right to enjoy a thing belonging to another and its fruits, with the burden of expenses and care for its preservation and maintenance. The definition substantially corresponds to the Roman one: *ius alienis rebus utendi fruendi, salva rerum substantia* (1. I, D. 7, 1). As a legal institution, usufruct cannot be traced back earlier than the 2nd century B.C. and arose for alimentary purposes, primarily to provide for a widow. From Roman law, the institution passed into dependent legal systems with few modifications; this also occurred in Italian law.
The content of the right of usufruct consists in the faculty of enjoying the thing; this, while it includes the right to collect natural and civil fruits, prevents the alienation of the thing or its pledge, etc. Usufruct differs from *infeudation* (v.); while indeed the infeudated party uses the thing as his own, the usufructuary uses it as another’s thing. The right, however, of usufruct may be transferred either for a certain time or for its entire duration, if this is not prohibited by the constitutive title (Italian Civil Code, art. 980).
I. OBJECT AND SOURCES OF USUFRUCT
Both in Roman law and in Italian civil law, the object of usufruct consists in non-fungible things: only these can be said to be enjoyed *salva substantia*. However, things whose use necessarily involves their destruction (so-called consumables) may also be included in usufruct, but in this case what is included is the right of the usufructuary. (Usufructuary) — he has the right of usufruct and is obliged to pay the value at the end of the usufruct according to the agreed valuation. In the absence of valuation, the usufructuary may pay for the things according to their value at the time when the usufruct ends or restore them in kind and quantity to the owner (Italian Civil Code, art. 999). This type of usufruct, also derived from Roman law, is called *quasi usufruct* (cf. D. 7, 5, 2, 1).In Italian civil law, the object of usufruct may also be fungible things, e.g., an automobile; in this case, however, the usufructuary has the right to use it according to its intended purpose and, at the end of the usufruct, is obliged only to restore it in the state in which it is found (art. 999). The sources of usufruct are: 1) the will of man; 2) the law (consider, for example, the so-called legal usufruct of a father over the property of a minor child or of a husband over the dowry of his wife); 3) prescription (Italian Civil Code, art. 978). The duration of usufruct cannot exceed the life of the usufructuary (art. 979). Usufruct constituted in favor of a legal person cannot last more than thirty years (ibid.).
II. RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF THE USUFRUCTUARY
In Roman law, the usufructuary acquired natural fruits upon their perception; civil fruits, however, day by day. The timber of a wood granted in usufruct fell into the property of the usufructuary with the cuts made with due care. Also falling into his property were dead trees and heads of a flock, but in the latter case he had to replace the dead heads. He could enjoy the mines in operation and, indeed, even reopen them, if this could be done without damage, at least in Justinianic law.In Italian civil law, the principal rights of the usufructuary are the following: 1) to obtain possession of the thing; 2) to draw from it every utility and all fruits (v.), both natural and civil, within certain limits (art. 981); 3) to collect the fruits even if pending at the beginning of the usufruct, from the start of the usufruct, without the burden of compensating for the expenses of sowing and cultivation; civil fruits day by day (art. 984); 4) to enjoy constructions and plantations made by the owner after the beginning of the usufruct, subject to the obligation to pay interest on the sums employed (art. 983); 5) to make improvements and additions that do not alter the economic destination of the thing, subject to the right, on the part of the usufructuary, at the time of restitution, to an indemnity for the improvements (art. 985); 6) to enjoy quarries or peat bogs already opened and in operation at the beginning of the usufruct (art. 987). To open new ones, however, he needs the consent of the owner (ibid.); 7) to proceed with the ordinary cutting of woods and of tall trees scattered in the countryside, taking care to maintain the original consistency of the woods and rows and providing for their reconstitution if necessary (art. 989); always reserving the right of the owner to those that are dead, broken, or fallen by accident; 8) to make his own the fruit-bearing trees that are dead, broken, or fallen by accident, subject to the obligation to replace them (art. 991); 9) to transfer to third parties, in whole or in part, for a certain time or for the entire duration, the exercise of the right of usufruct or even the right itself, the usufructuary remaining, however, liable with the assignee before the owner until the assignment is notified to the latter (art. 980). For the usufruct of consumable and deteriorable things, arts. 995–96 apply, while for the usufruct of plants, factories, machinery that have a productive destination, the usufructuary is reserved the right to a suitable indemnity for expenses exceeding ordinary repairs (art. 997). Finally, for live (e.g., work animals) and dead stock (e.g., plows, machines, seeds), the Italian Civil Code has resolved the controversy regarding their restitution, establishing that live and dead stock of a farm must be restored in equal quantity and quality. Any excess or deficiency must be settled in money according to their value at the end of the usufruct (art. 998).
As for the duties of the usufructuary, it should be noted that in Roman law it was established that he had to use the thing and enjoy it *tanquam bonus pater familias*, preserving it in good condition and bearing all necessary expenses for its maintenance. To guarantee these obligations, the usufructuary was required to promise *se usurum boni viri arbitratu et restituturum*. Hence the obligation of security, with its exceptions in legal usufruct, etc. In Italian civil law as well, the usufructuary is bound to use the thing with the diligence of a good father of a family (art. 1001); to bear ordinary expenses and extraordinary ones necessitated by failure to fulfill obligations of ordinary maintenance (art. 1004); to pay taxes and burdens levied on the income (arts. 1008–1009). For liabilities encumbering an estate in usufruct, arts. 1010 and 1012 apply.
III. CESSATION OF USUFRUCT
Since usufruct is constituted for the benefit of a determinate person, it ends, at the latest, with the death of that person, and for legal persons a maximum term is fixed, as already stated. This was the case in Roman law, in which usufruct also extinguished by *capitis deminutio* of the usufructuary, by consolidation, by destruction of the thing, or by non-use for ten years between present persons or twenty between absent ones.In current Italian civil law as well, usufruct ceases with the death of the usufructuary and with the expiration of thirty years if it pertains to a legal person (art. 970); with the expiration of the agreed term; with the total perishing of the thing; with the confusion of the quality of usufructuary and owner in the same person; with abuse, by alienating the goods or deteriorating them or allowing them to perish through lack of ordinary repairs (in this last case, however, a judicial sentence is required: art. 1015); with prescription and with twenty years of non-use (art. 1014). Similar provisions to those of the Italian Civil Code are found in the French (arts. 503, 618–35), Spanish (arts. 467–69), Portuguese (arts. 2197–2216), Mexican (arts. 865–941), Argentine (arts. 2841–3003), Brazilian (arts. 713–49), and German (§§ 1030–89) codes.
Regarding canon law, it is well known that the legislator, in matters of real rights, defers to the civil laws of individual territories, provided they are not contrary to divine law and that canon law does not establish otherwise (can. 1529).
Now, with regard to the fruits of a benefice, the most common opinion before the *Codex Iuris Canonici* among canonists and even theologians held that the entirety of the fruits should become the property of the benefice whenever it had fulfilled its related obligations. Canon 1473, however, now clearly defines the rights of the benefice over the fruits of its benefice: it is a mere usufructuary who, even if possessing other goods, may enjoy the fruits of the benefice for its honest sustenance, though it must spend any surplus on the poor and pious causes. The ownership of the goods always remains with the benefice (can. 1472). In the enjoyment of these goods, however, the benefice is subject to limits established by the law itself. Thus, for example, treasure found on benefice land or the proceeds from benefice quarries do not belong to the benefice but to the endowment of the benefice itself, after deducting, of course, the sum of money required for expenses and the loss of the fruits of the benefice (S. Congr. Concilii, 12–17 Dec. 1931: *AAS*, 24 [1932], p. 147). For the obligations of a benefice that is not the usufructuary of the benefice, see BENEFICIO.