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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §17.1.30.pr

Agent's Prohibition and Trustee's Liability for Manumission

Passage 2470 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Julian discusses whether a mandate action lies when a trustee manumits a slave despite the mandator's agent forbidding it, stating that the trustee's liability depends on whether the agent had a just cause for the prohibition.

[IULIANUS libro tertio decimo digestorum. ] §17.1.30.prSi hominem tibi dedero, ut eum manumitteres, et postea procurator meus prohibuerit, ne manumitteres, an mandati agere possim, si tu eum manumiseris? respondi, si procurator iustam causam habuit interpellandi manumissionem serui, quem in hoc solum acceperam, ut manumitterem, ueluti si compererit eum postea falsas rationes confecisse, insidias uitae prioris domini struxisse, tenebor, nisi denuntiationi procuratoris paruero: si uero nulla iusta causa procuratori fuit denuntiandi, ne seruus manumitteretur, non poterit mecum agi, quamuis ad libertatem eum perduxerim.
[JULIAN in the thirteenth book of his Digests.] If I give a slave to you in order that you may manumit him, and afterwards my procurator forbids you to manumit him, can I bring an action of mandate if you have manumitted him? I answered: if the procurator had a just cause for blocking the manumission of the slave—whom I had received solely for this purpose, that I should manumit him—as for example if he discovered that the slave had afterwards falsified accounts or plotted against the life of his former master, I shall be held liable unless I complied with the notification of the procurator; but if there was no just cause for the procurator to notify that the slave should not be manumitted, no action can be brought against me, although I have brought him to freedom.

Notes

  1. §17.1.30.prrespondi, si procurator iustam causam habuit... tenebor — In the query, the mandator is 'I' (ego) and the trustee is 'you' (tibi / tu). In the response, however, Julian adopts the perspective of the trustee, answering in the first person (acceperam, tenebor, perduxerim). This shift of grammatical person is common in juristic responsa.
  2. §17.1.30.prtenebor, nisi denuntiationi procuratoris paruero — The conditional conjunction 'nisi' (unless / if not) is followed by the future perfect 'paruero', leading to the future indicative 'tenebor' (I shall be held liable) as the consequence of non-compliance.
  3. §17.1.30.printerpellandi manumissionem serui — The genitive gerund 'interpellandi' modifies 'iustam causam' and takes the accusative 'manumissionem' (with its possessive genitive 'serui') as its direct object, meaning 'a just cause for interrupting the manumission of the slave'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §17.1.30.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:17.1.30.pr

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