Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

bonorum possessio contra tabulas

[Latin "possession of goods against the testament"] Roman law. An order authorizing the applicant to take possession of an estate contrary to the testator's will. 9 Magistrates made such orders in certain cases, as where a testator passed over a son who was not expressly disinherited. - Also termed contra tabulas. "The Praetor could not affect the civil validity of a will; he could not make or unmake a heres. He could, however, give bonorum possessio to a person, heres or not at civil law, which gave him power to take possession of the goods by appropriate steps, bonorum possessio contra tabulas . . . ." W.W. Buckland, A Textbook of Roman Law: From Augustus to Justinian 324 (Peter Stein ed., 3d ed. 1963).