[PROCULUS libro septimo epistularum. ] §12.6.53.prDominus testamento seruo suo libertatem dedit, si decem det: seruo ignorante id testamentum non ualere data sunt mihi decem: quaeritur, quis repetere potest.
[PROCULUS, in the seventh book of Epistles.] A master by will granted freedom to his slave on condition that he give ten: while the slave was ignorant that the will was invalid, ten was paid to me; it is asked who can recover it.
Proculus respondit: si ipse seruus peculiares nummos dedit, cum ei a domino id permissum non esset, manent nummi domini eosque non per condictionem, sed in rem actione petere debet.
Proculus answered: if the slave himself paid coins from his peculium, although this had not been permitted to him by his master, the coins remain the property of the master, and he must claim them not by a condictio, but by an action in rem.
si autem alius rogatu serui suos nummos dedit, facti sunt mei eosque dominus serui, cuius nomine dati sunt, per condictionem petere potest: sed tam benignius quam utilius est recta uia ipsum qui nummos dedit suum recipere.
If, however, another person at the request of the slave paid his own coins, they became mine, and the master of the slave, in whose name they were paid, can claim them by a condictio; but it is as much more equitable as it is more practical that the very person who paid the coins should recover what is his by a direct path.