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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §12.6.37.pr

Recovery of Price Paid to Buy One's Own Slave

Passage 2013 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Julian's view that if one unknowingly buys one's own slave from another and pays the price, one can recover the money through a condictio, regardless of whether the seller knew the slave belonged to the buyer.

[IULIANUS libro tertio ad Urseium Ferocem. ] §12.6.37.prSeruum meum insciens a te emi pecuniamque tibi solui: eam me a te repetiturum et eo nomine condictionem mihi esse omnimodo puto, siue scisses meum esse siue ignorasses.
[JULIANUS, Book 3 of Commentary on Urseius Ferox.] Unknowingly, I bought my own slave from you and paid you the money. Whether you knew that the slave was mine or were ignorant of it, I believe that in any case I can recover it from you and that I have a condictio on that account.

Notes

  1. 12.6.37.prinsciens — An adjective qualifying the subject of the main verb emi ('I bought'), functioning predicatively: 'I, without knowing [that the slave was mine]'.
  2. 12.6.37.prrepetiturum — A future participle in the accusative, forming the accusative-and-infinitive construction me ... repetiturum [esse] ('that I would recover'). Conjoined by et with condictionem mihi esse, both clauses function as the object of puto.
  3. 12.6.37.prcondictionem — Refers to the condictio, the personal action in Roman law used to recover money or a specific thing retained by another without any legal cause (unjust enrichment).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §12.6.37.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:12.6.37.pr

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