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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §18.2.6.pr-18.2.6.1

Allocation of Interim Fruits upon a Better Offer

Passage 2675 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

A discussion on the ownership of interim fruits when a better offer is made (requiring return to the seller), and the questioning of fruit ownership when the first purchaser themselves makes the better offer.

[ULPIANUS libro uicensimo octauo ad Sabinum. ] §18.2.6.prItem quod dictum est fructus interea captos emptorem priorem sequi, totiens uerum est, quotiens nullus emptor existit, qui meliorem condicionem adferat, uel falsus exsistit: sin uero exstitit emptor posterior, fructus refundere priorem debere constat, sed uenditori.
[ULPIANUS, on Sabinus, book 28.] Likewise, what has been said, that the fruits gathered in the meantime belong to the first purchaser, is true only so long as no purchaser appears who offers a better term, or if a fictitious one appears. But if a subsequent purchaser does appear, it is established that the first purchaser must return the fruits, but to the seller.
et ita Iulianus libro quadragensimo octauo digestorum scripsit.
And so Julianus wrote in the forty-eighth book of his Digests.
§18.2.6.1Si quis extiterit, qui meliorem condicionem adferat, deinde prior emptor aduersus eum licitatus sit et penes eum emptum remanserit, dubitari poterit, utrum fructus ipse habeat, quasi nulla meliore condicione allata, an uero uenditoris sint, licet eadem sit persona, quae meliorem condicionem attulit.
If anyone should appear who offers a better term, and then the first purchaser bids against him and the property remains purchased in his hands, it may be doubted whether he himself should have the fruits, as if no better term had been offered, or whether they belong to the seller, even though the person who offered the better term is the same.
quod ratio facere uidetur: intererit tamen quid acti sit: et ita Pomponius scribit.
Reason seems to support this latter view; however, it will matter what was agreed upon, and so Pomponius writes.

Notes

  1. §18.2.6.prsed uenditori — The conjunction 'sed' qualifies the infinitive clause 'fructus refundere priorem debere', clarifying the recipient (dative 'uenditori') of the returned fruits. It emphasizes that they must be returned to the seller, not to the subsequent purchaser.
  2. §18.2.6.1licet eadem sit persona, quae meliorem condicionem attulit — In the concessive clause 'licet eadem sit persona', 'eadem persona' (the same person) refers to the first purchaser (prior emptor) who also offered the better bid. This marks the conceptual tension between whether the first sale was rescinded for a new one, or if it continued because the parties remained the same.
  3. §18.2.6.1quod ratio facere uidetur — The relative pronoun 'quod' refers back to the second alternative 'an uero uenditoris sint' (that the fruits belong to the seller). The verb 'facere' here means 'to support' or 'to favor', indicating that legal reasoning or theory (ratio) supports this latter view.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §18.2.6.pr-18.2.6.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:18.2.6.pr-18.2.6.1

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