Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §18.2.13.pr-18.2.13.1

Sale of Joint Property for a Lump Sum and Co-Owner Offers

Passage 2682 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Discusses the effect of adjudging a jointly owned property sold for a single price to a prior buyer, and states that even one of the co-owners can offer a better price to purchase the whole, including their own share.

[ULPIANUS libro uicensimo octauo ad Sabinum. ] §18.2.13.prQuod si uno pretio uendiderint, dicendum est totam priori emptam manere, quemadmodum si quis mihi totum fundum ad diem addixisset, postea uero pretio adiecto dimidium alii addixerit.
[ULPIANUS, On Sabinus, book 28.] But if they sold for a single price, it must be said that the whole remains purchased by the prior buyer, just as if someone had adjudged the whole estate to me subject to a better offer by a certain day, but afterwards, upon an increase in price, adjudged half of it to another.
Celsus quoque libro octauo digestorum refert Mucium Brutum Labeonem quod Sabinum existimare: ipse quoque Celsus idem probat et adicit mirari se a nemine animaduersum, quod si prior emptor ita contraxit, ut nisi totum, fundum emptum nollet habere, non habere eum eam partem emptam, quam unus ex sociis posteriori emptori addicere noluit.
Celsus also, in the eighth book of his Digests, reports that Mucius, Brutus, and Labeo held the same opinion as Sabinus; Celsus himself also approves of this and adds that he is surprised that no one noticed that, if the prior buyer contracted in such a way that he did not want to have the estate purchased unless he had the whole of it, he does not have as purchased even that part which one of the partners did not want to adjudge to the later buyer.
§18.2.13.1Uerum est autem uel unum ex uenditoribus posse meliorem adferre condicionem: emere enim cum tota re etiam nostram partem possumus.
Moreover, it is true that even one of the sellers can bring a better condition; for we can buy, along with the whole thing, even our own share.

Notes

  1. §18.2.13.prpriori emptam — 'priori' is a dative (of agent or reference) with the perfect passive participle 'emptam'. The phrase 'totam priori emptam manere' is an accusative and infinitive construction dependent on 'dicendum est', meaning 'the whole remains purchased by the prior buyer'.
  2. §18.2.13.prquod Sabinum existimare — The manuscript reading 'quod' is problematic and has been emended by some scholars (such as Cujas) to 'quoque' ('that Sabinus also thought...'). If retained, 'quod' can be interpreted as a relative pronoun ('what Sabinus thought') or as introducing another accusative and infinitive clause ('that Sabinus thought [so]') parallel to 'Mucium Brutum Labeonem... existimare'.
  3. §18.2.13.prnisi totum, fundum emptum nollet habere — A conditional clause 'nisi totum' (unless as a whole) is nested inside the result clause introduced by 'ut' (after 'ita'). 'fundum emptum... habere' is a periphrastic construction using the perfect passive participle 'emptum' with 'habere', meaning 'to hold/keep the estate as purchased'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §18.2.13.pr-18.2.13.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:18.2.13.pr-18.2.13.1

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.