Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §18.2.9.pr

Rejection of Better Offer and Dissolution by Buyer's Exit Agreement

Passage 2678 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The text discusses whether a seller may reject a better offered condition to maintain the initial contract, and addresses the dissolution of the contract if there was an express agreement allowing the purchaser to withdraw upon a better offer.

[ULPIANUS libro uicensimo octauo ad Sabinum. ] §18.2.9.prSabinus scribit licere uenditori meliorem condicionem oblatam abicere sequique primam quasi meliorem, et ita utimur.
[ULPIAN, On Sabinus, book 28.] Sabinus writes that the seller is permitted to reject an offered better condition and to follow the first as if it were better, and this is how we practice.
quid tamen, si hoc erat nominatim actum, ut liceret resilire emptori meliore condicione allata? dicendum erit dissolutam priorem emptionem, etiamsi uenditor sequentem non admittat.
However, what if it had been expressly agreed that the purchaser should be permitted to withdraw if a better condition were offered? It must be said that the prior sale is dissolved, even if the seller does not accept the subsequent term.

Notes

  1. §18.2.9.prlicere — An accusative-and-infinitival clause (indirect speech) dependent on Sabinus scribit. The impersonal verb licere acts as the main infinitive with the dative uenditori as its logical subject. The two infinitives abicere and sequique (sequi + -que) function as the subjects of licere.
  2. §18.2.9.prmeliore condicione allata — An ablative absolute consisting of the noun condicione and the participle allata (perfect passive participle of afferre), functioning with a conditional force ('if a better condition is/was offered').
  3. §18.2.9.prdicendum erit dissolutam — The main clause features the impersonal gerundive dicendum erit ('it must be said'), which governs an accusative-and-infinitival clause dissolutam [esse] priorem emptionem ('that the prior sale is dissolved') with the infinitive esse omitted.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §18.2.9.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:18.2.9.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.