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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §14.2.8.pr

Retention of Ownership for Jettisoned Goods

Passage 2197 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Julianus argues that goods thrown overboard to lighten a ship are not considered abandoned, as the owners retain the intention to retrieve them, making the situation analogous to temporarily dropping a heavy load on a road.

[IULIANUS libro secundo ex Minicio. ] §14.2.8.prQui leuandae nauis gratia res aliquas proiciunt, non hanc mentem habent, ut eas pro derelicto habeant, quippe si inuenerint eas, ablaturos et, si suspicati fuerint, in quem locum eiectae sunt, requisituros: ut perinde sint, ac si quis onere pressus in uiam rem abiecerit mox cum aliis reuersurus, ut eandem auferret.
[JULIANUS, from the second book of his work On Minicius.] Those who throw certain goods overboard for the sake of lightening a ship do not have this intention, namely, to treat them as abandoned; for indeed, if they find them, they will take them away, and if they have conjectured into what place they have been cast up, they will search for them. Consequently, they are in the same position as if someone, weighed down by a load, had thrown a thing onto the road, intending to return shortly with others to take it away.

Notes

  1. §14.2.8.prleuandae nauis gratia — The gerundive leuandae agreeing with the noun nauis, used with the postpositional ablative gratia (for the sake of) to express purpose.
  2. §14.2.8.prablaturos... requisituros — Future infinitives ablaturos [esse] and requisituros [esse] with esse omitted. Introduced by the conjunction quippe, they express the subjective intention or expected behavior of the subjects of the main clause (qui... proiciunt) in an indirect-speech-like construction.
  3. §14.2.8.prin quem locum eiectae sunt — An indirect question clause serving as the object of suspicati fuerint. While classical Latin standards typically require the subjunctive, the indicative sunt is used here, either to emphasize the factual reality of where the goods were cast up, or reflecting the use of the indicative in colloquial and juristic Latin.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §14.2.8.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:14.2.8.pr

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