[PAULUS libro uicensimo nono ad edictum. ] §13.6.17.prIn commodato haec pactio, ne dolus praestetur, rata non est.
[PAULUS in the twenty-ninth book on the Edict.] In a loan for use, an agreement that there shall be no liability for fraud is not valid.
§13.6.17.1Contraria commodati actio etiam sine principali moueri potest, sicut et ceterae quae dicuntur contrariae.
The counter-action on loan can be brought even without the principal action, just as the other actions which are called counter-actions.
§13.6.17.2Si ex facto heredis agatur commodati, in solidum condemnatur, licet ex parte heres est.
If an action on loan is brought on account of an act of an heir, he is condemned for the whole amount, even though he is an heir only for a part.
§13.6.17.3Sicut autem uoluntatis et officii magis quam necessitatis est commodare, ita modum commodati finemque praescribere eius est qui beneficium tribuit.
Moreover, just as lending is a matter of free will and moral duty rather than of necessity, so prescribing the measure and limit of the loan belongs to him who confers the benefit.
cum autem id fecit, id est postquam commoda uit, tunc finem praescribere et retro agere atque intempestiue usum commodatae rei auferre non officium tantum impedit, sed et suscepta obligatio inter dandum accipiendumque.
But when he has done this, that is, after he has lent [the thing], then to prescribe a limit, to revoke [the transaction], and untimely to deprive [the borrower] of the use of the lent thing is not only prevented by moral duty, but also by the obligation undertaken between giving and receiving.
geritur enim negotium inuicem et ideo inuicem propositae sunt actiones, ut appareat, quod principio beneficii ac nudae uoluntatis fuerat, conuerti in mutuas praestationes actionesque ciuiles. ut accidit in eo, qui absentis negotia gerere inchoauit: neque enim impune peritura deseret: suscepisset enim fortassis alius, si is non coepisset: uoluntatis est enim suscipere mandatum, necessitatis consummare.
For the business is transacted mutually, and therefore actions are mutually provided, so that it appears that what in the beginning had been a matter of benefit and mere free will is converted into mutual performances and civil actions; as happens in the case of one who has begun to manage the affairs of an absent person; for he shall not with impunity abandon things that are about to perish; for perhaps someone else would have undertaken them, if he had not begun. For undertaking a mandate is a matter of free will, but completing it is a matter of necessity.
igitur si pugillares mihi commodasti, ut debitor mihi caueret, non recte facies importune repetendo: nam si negasses, uel emissem uel testes adhibuissem.
Therefore, if you lent me writing-tablets so that a debtor might give me security, you will not do rightly by demanding them back importunately; for if you had refused, I would have either bought them or employed witnesses.
idemque est, si ad fulciendam insulam tigna commodasti, deinde protraxisti aut etiam sciens uitiosa commodaaueris: adiuuari quippe nos, non decipi beneficio oportet.
And it is the same if you lent beams to prop up a tenement building, and then withdrew them, or even if you knowingly lent defective ones; for we ought to be helped, not deceived, by a benefit.
ex quibus causis etiam contrarium iudicium utile esse dicendum est.
For these reasons, it must be said that a counter-action is also available.
§13.6.17.4Duabus rebus commodatis recte de altera commodati agi posse Uiuianus scripsit: quod ita uideri uerum, si separatae sint, Pomponius scripsit: nam eum, qui carrucam puta uel lecticam commodauit, non recte acturum de singulis partibus.
Vivianus wrote that if two things have been lent, an action on loan can rightly be brought for one of them; Pomponius wrote that this seems to be true only if they are separate; for a person who has lent, say, a carriage or a litter, will not rightly bring an action for the individual parts.
§13.6.17.5Rem commodatam perdidi et pro ea pretium dedi, deinde res in potestate tua uenit: Labeo ait contrario iudicio aut rem mihi praestare te debere aut quod a me accepisti reddere.
I lost the lent thing and gave you its price, then the thing came into your possession; Labeo says that by a counter-action you ought either to deliver the thing to me or to return what you received from me.