Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §18.1.79.pr

Action on Sale for Agreement to Lease Retained Land

Passage 2667 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This text discusses whether an action on sale can be brought to enforce an agreement where the buyer of half a tract of land must lease the remaining half from the seller, presenting the negative view of Labeo and Trebatius alongside the affirmative view of Javolenus based on the reduction of the purchase price.

[IAUOLENUS libro quinto ex posterioribus LABEONIS.] §18.1.79.prFundi partem dimidiam ea lege uendidisti, ut emptor alteram partem, quam retinebas, annis decem certa pecunia in annos singulos conductam habeat.
[JAVOLENUS, in the fifth book of his Last Works of LABEO.] You sold half of a tract of land on the condition that the purchaser should lease the other half, which you retained, for ten years at a certain sum of money for each year.
Labeo et Trebatius negant posse ex uendito agi, ut id quod conuenerit fiat.
Labeo and Trebatius deny that an action on sale can be brought to have that which was agreed upon performed.
ego contra puto, si modo ideo uilius fundum uendidisti, ut haec tibi conductio praestaretur: nam hoc ipsum pretium fundi uideretur, quod eo pacto uenditus fuerat: eoque iure utimur.
I, on the contrary, think that it can, provided that you sold the land cheaper for the very reason that this lease should be performed to you; for that very fact, that it was sold under such a pact, would seem to be the price of the land; and this is the law we use.

Notes

  1. §18.1.79.prconductam habeat — conductam (perfect passive participle, feminine accusative singular) modifies alteram partem and, together with habeat used as an auxiliary, expresses the continuous or completed state of holding the lease ("to lease").
  2. §18.1.79.prego contra puto — After puto, the phrase posse ex uendito agi (that an action on sale can be brought) from the preceding sentence is understood in the affirmative. While Labeo and others deny it (negant posse...), Javolenus affirms it under a specific condition.
  3. §18.1.79.prhoc ipsum... quod fuerat — hoc ipsum is in apposition with the noun clause introduced by quod ("the fact that it was sold under such a pact"), serving together as the subject of uideretur. Even if quod is interpreted as a causal conjunction ("because..."), hoc ipsum still refers back to the agreement of lease.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §18.1.79.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:18.1.79.pr

Please note the AI-draft status of the translation and the date accessed.

Translation, notes and summary are AI-generated drafts, revised through reader feedback.