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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §16.1.15.pr

Denial of the Exception for Unauthorized Receipt by a Woman

Passage 2361 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Julianus argues that if a debtor pays a woman and, upon the creditor's failure to ratify, sues her on a stipulation for return, she cannot plead the exception of the senatusconsultum on women's intercessions.

[IDEM libro quinquagensimo primo digestorum. ] §16.1.15.prSi mulieri soluero id quod tibi debebam et ab ea ratam rem te habiturum stipulatus fuero et forte te ratum non habente agere ex stipulatu instituero, exceptio senatus consulti, quod de intercessionibus feminarum factum est, non proderit mulieri: non enim uideri potest alienam obligationem recusare, cum maneam debito obligatus, et ipsa de lucro agat ac potius reddere cogatur quod non debitum acceperat, quam pro alio soluere.
[THE SAME, Digest, book 51] If I pay to a woman what I owed to you and stipulate with her that you will ratify the payment, and if, because you do not ratify it, I bring an action based on the stipulation, the exception of the senatusconsultum, which was enacted concerning the intercessions of women, will not benefit the woman; for she cannot be regarded as refusing another's obligation, since I remain bound by the debt, and she herself is acting to retain a windfall and is compelled to return what she had received when it was not due, rather than to pay on behalf of another.

Notes

  1. §16.1.15.prratam rem te habiturum — An accusative with infinitive clause functioning as the object of `stipulatus fuero` ("I stipulated"). The accusative `te` is the subject of the future infinitive `habiturum [esse]`. `rem ratam habere` is a legal idiom meaning "to ratify or approve a matter."
  2. §16.1.15.prde lucro agat — A phrase based on the traditional legal distinction between acting to avoid loss (`de damno agere`) and acting to retain a windfall or gain (`de lucro agere`). Here, it indicates that the woman is not trying to prevent her own loss, but rather to keep an unjustified enrichment.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §16.1.15.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:16.1.15.pr

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