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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §12.7.1.pr-12.7.1.3

Claims for Recovery on Promises Made Without Cause

Passage 2044 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Ulpian explains the establishment of a condictio (claim for recovery) for promises or payments made without cause (or where the cause failed), noting that if performance has not occurred, the claim is for the obligation itself.

[ULPIANUS libro quadragensimo tertio ad Sabinum. ] §12.7.1.prEst et haec species condictionis, si quis sine causa promiserit uel si soluerit quis indebitum.
[ULPIAN, in his forty-third book On Sabinus.] There is also this species of condictio: if someone has promised without cause, or if someone has paid what was not due.
qui autem promisit sine causa, condicere quantitatem non potest quam non dedit, sed ipsam obligationem.
However, he who has promised without cause cannot claim by condictio the amount which he has not given, but the obligation itself.
§12.7.1.1Sed et si ob causam promisit, causa tamen secuta non est, dicendum est condictionem locum habere.
But also, if he promised for a cause, yet the cause did not follow, it must be said that there is ground for a condictio.
§12.7.1.2Siue ab initio sine causa promissum est, siue fuit causa promittendi quae finita est uel secuta non est, dicendum est condictioni locum fore.
Whether the promise was made without cause from the beginning, or there was a cause for promising which has ended or did not follow, it must be said that there will be ground for a condictio.
§12.7.1.3Constat id demum posse condici alicui, quod uel non ex iusta causa ad eum peruenit uel redit ad non iustam causam.
It is established that only that can be claimed by condictio from someone, which has either come to him not from a just cause, or has returned to an unjust cause.

Notes

  1. §12.7.1.prcondicere quantitatem non potest quam non dedit, sed ipsam obligationem — At the stage where one has "promised without cause (sine causa promiserit)" but has not yet performed, no actual payment has occurred. Thus, the object of recovery is not the "amount of money (quantitatem)" which was never paid, but "the obligation itself (ipsam obligationem)," meaning release from the unjust obligation created by the promise.
  2. §12.7.1.3id demum — The adverb demum (only, at last) correlates with the following relative clause quod ... to express a strict limitation: "only that (can be claimed by condictio) which ...".

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §12.7.1.pr-12.7.1.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:12.7.1.pr-12.7.1.3

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