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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §13.5.17.pr

Refusal of Belated Performance and Interpretation of the Edict

Passage 2100 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Paulus argues that the defendant should be relieved if the plaintiff refuses a belated offer of performance without just cause, and explains how the praetor's words on non-performance should be fairly interpreted.

[PAULUS libro uicensimo nono ad edictum. ] §13.5.17.prSed et si alia die offerat nec actor accipere uoluit nec ulla causa iusta fuit non accipiendi, aequum est succurri reo aut exceptione aut iusta interpretatione, ut factum actoris usque ad tempus iudicii ipsi noceat: ut illa uerba 'neque fecisset' hoc significent, ut neque in diem in quem constituit fecerit neque postea.
[PAULUS, from the twenty-ninth book on the Edict.] But also, if he should offer performance on another day, and the plaintiff did not wish to accept it, and there was no just cause for not accepting it, it is equitable that the defendant be relieved either by a plea or by a fair interpretation, so that the act of the plaintiff may prejudice himself up to the time of the trial: that is, so that those words 'nor had performed' may mean this, that he neither performed on the day for which he made the promise, nor afterwards.

Notes

  1. §13.5.17.profferat — The subject is omitted but in context refers to the debtor (the defendant, reus), offering performance belatedly after the promised day.
  2. §13.5.17.prsuccurri reo — An impersonal passive infinitive `succurri` combined with the dative `reo` governed by the verb `succurrere`. Literally "that relief be given to the defendant," forming the infinitive clause that serves as the subject of `aequum est`.
  3. §13.5.17.pripsi — The dative of the demonstrative pronoun, referring here to the genitive `actoris` (of the plaintiff) which modifies the subject `factum`. It indicates that the plaintiff's own conduct prejudices the plaintiff himself.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §13.5.17.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:13.5.17.pr

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