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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §12.1.14.pr

Loans to Sons in Power and Recovery by the Father

Passage 1869 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section discusses the father's claim of ownership when a son in power pays money borrowed in violation of the senate's decree, and the non-existence of a personal action for recovery (condictio) if the money has been consumed.

[IDEM libro uicensimo nono ad edictum. ] §12.1.14.prSi filius familias contra senatus consultum mutuatus pecuniam soluerit, patri nummos uindicanti nulla exceptio obicietur: sed si fuerint consumpti a creditore nummi, Marcellus ait cessare condictionem, quoniam totiens condictio datur, quotiens ex ea causa numerati sunt, ex qua actio esse potuisset, si dominium ad accipientem transisset: in proposito autem non esset.
[THE SAME, On the Edict, Book 29] If a son in power has paid money borrowed in violation of the senate's decree, no exception will be opposed to the father claiming the coins; but if the coins have been consumed by the creditor, Marcellus says that a personal action for recovery does not lie, since a personal action for recovery is granted only so often as the money has been paid on such a ground as would have allowed an action to exist, if ownership had passed to the recipient; but in the present case, there would be none.
denique per errorem soluti contra senatus consultum crediti magis est cessare repetitionem.
Consequently, where a loan made in violation of the senate's decree has been paid through error, it is more correct that the recovery of what was paid should be denied.

Notes

  1. §12.1.14.pruindicanti — A present participle in the dative case modifying 'patri'. Since the loan contracted by the son in power in violation of the senate's decree is invalid, the ownership of the paid coins still belongs to the father, allowing him to claim (uindicare) the coins themselves via an action in rem (rei vindicatio).
  2. §12.1.14.prtotiens... quotiens... — Correlative adverbs meaning literally 'as often as', but used here to express a restrictive logical condition, equivalent to 'only in cases where'.
  3. §12.1.14.practio esse potuisset, si dominium ad accipientem transisset — A contrary-to-fact conditional clause using the pluperfect subjunctive. It expresses the hypothetical situation that an action (actio) would have existed for the creditor only if ownership of the money had passed to the recipient (i.e., if the contract had been valid) without the prohibition of the senate's decree.
  4. §12.1.14.prcrediti — The genitive of the substantivized neuter adjective 'creditum' (loan, trust), modified by the participle 'soluti'. It functions as a limiting genitive modifying the noun 'repetitionem' (recovery).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §12.1.14.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:12.1.14.pr

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