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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §10.4.11.pr-10.4.11.2

Damage Assessment and Costs of Producing Property

Passage 1737 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The text discusses the assessment of damages when an inheritance is lost due to a failure to produce a slave, the rules governing the location and expenses of production, and the liability of a defendant who ceases to possess some of the disputed items after the joinder of issue.

[ULPIANUS libro uicensimo quarto ad edictum. ] §10.4.11.prSed et si hereditas amissa sit ob hoc, quod seruus non exhibeatur, aequissimum est aestimari officio iudicis damnum hereditatis.
[ULPIANUS libro uicensimo quarto ad edictum.] But also, if an inheritance is lost because a slave is not produced, it is most equitable that the loss of the inheritance be assessed by the office of the judge.
§10.4.11.1Quo autem loco exhiberi rem oporteat uel cuius sumptibus, uideamus.
Now, let us see in what place a thing ought to be produced, or at whose expense.
et Labeo ait ibi exhibendum, ubi fuerit cum lis contestaretur, periculo et impendiis actoris perferendam perducendamue eo loci ubi actum sit.
And Labeo says that it should be produced in the place where it was when the joinder of issue took place, and that it must be carried or brought to the place where the action is brought at the risk and expense of the plaintiff.
pascere plane seruum uestire curare possessorem oportere ait.
Clearly, he says that the possessor ought to feed, clothe, and care for the slave.
ego autem arbitror interdum etiam haec actorem agnoscere oportere, si forte ipse seruus ex operis uel artificio suo solebat se exhibere, nunc uero cogitur uacare.
I, however, think that sometimes the plaintiff also ought to acknowledge these expenses, if perhaps the slave himself used to support himself from his labor or craft, but now is forced to be idle.
proinde et si apud officium fuerit depositus exhibendus, cibaria debebit adgnoscere qui exhiberi desideranit, si non solebat possessor seruum pascere: nam si solebat, sicuti pascit, ita et cibaria potest non recusare.
Accordingly, even if the slave to be produced has been deposited in an official custody, he who desired him to be produced will have to bear the maintenance, if the possessor was not accustomed to feed the slave; for if he was accustomed to do so, just as he feeds him, so also he cannot refuse the maintenance.
interdum tamen eo loco exhibere debet suis sumptibus, si forte proponas data opera eum in locum abditum res contulisse, ut actori incommodior esset exhibitio: nam in hunc casum suis sumptibus et periculo debebit exhibere in eum locum ubi agatur, ne ei calliditas sua prosit.
Sometimes, however, he must produce the thing at his own expense in that place, if perhaps you suppose that he has intentionally moved the property to a hidden place so that the production would be more inconvenient for the plaintiff; for in this case he will have to produce it in the place where the action is pending at his own expense and risk, so that his own cleverness may not benefit him.
§10.4.11.2Si de pluribus rebus quis conueniatur et litis contestatae tempore omnes possedit, licet postea quasdam desierit quamuis sine dolo malo possidere, damnandum, nisi exhibeat eas quas potest.
If someone is sued for several things and possessed them all at the time of the joinder of issue, even if he afterwards ceased to possess some of them, although without bad faith, he must be condemned unless he produces those which he can.

Notes

  1. §10.4.11.prob hoc, quod seruus non exhibeatur — While a quod-clause stating a factual cause usually takes the indicative, the subjunctive present exhibeatur is used here either due to subjunctive attraction (triggered by amissa sit) or to present the reason as a hypothetical or subjective allegation within the conditional context.
  2. §10.4.11.1perferendam perducendamue — These are gerundives modifying the preceding feminine accusative singular rem, forming part of the accusative and infinitive construction (with esse omitted) governed by Labeo ait. There is a precise distinction between perferre (to carry, used for inanimate objects) and perducere (to lead, used for animate beings like slaves).
  3. §10.4.11.1se exhibere — While the verb exhibere is primarily used in this context for 'producing' or 'exhibiting' something in court, in the reflexive form se exhibere it is used colloquially or idiomatically to mean 'to support oneself' or 'to maintain one's own livelihood.'
  4. §10.4.11.2damnandum — This is a gerundive construction with esse omitted (damnandum esse), where the logical subject is the indefinite pronoun quis (the defendant) from the introductory conditional clause. It functions as an elliptical legal statement meaning 'he must be condemned.'

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §10.4.11.pr-10.4.11.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:10.4.11.pr-10.4.11.2

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