[IDEM libro trigensimo secundo ad edictum. ] §18.3.4.prSi fundus lege commissoria uenierit, hoc est ut, nisi intra certum diem pretium sit exsolutum, inemptus fieret, uideamus, quemadmodum uenditor agat tam de fundo quam de his, quae ex fundo percepta sint, itemque si deterior fundus effectus sit facto emptoris.
[THE SAME, On the Edict, book 32.] If a tract of land is sold under a forfeiture clause, that is, so that unless the price is paid within a certain day, it becomes unsold, let us see how the seller should act both regarding the land and regarding those things which have been gathered from the land, and likewise if the land has been made worse by the act of the buyer.
et quidem finita est emptio: sed iam decisa quaestio est ex uendito actionem competere, ut rescriptis imperatoris Antonini et diui Seueri declaratur.
And indeed, the sale is terminated; but it has already been decided that an action on the sale lies, as is declared by the rescripts of the Emperor Antoninus and the divine Severus.
§18.3.4.1Sed quod ait Neratius habet rationem, ut interdum fructus emptor lucretur, cum pretium quod numerauit perdidit: igitur sententia Neratii tunc habet locum, quae est humana, quando emptor aliquam partem pretii dedit.
But what Neratius says has reason, that sometimes the buyer should gain the fruits when he has lost the price which he paid; therefore, the opinion of Neratius, which is humane, has place when the buyer has given some part of the price.
§18.3.4.2Eleganter Papinianus libro tertio responsorum scribit, statim atque commissa lex est statuere uenditorem debere, utrum commissoriam uelit exercere an potius pretium petere, nec posse, si commissoriam elegit, postea uariare.
Papinian elegantly writes in the third book of his Opinions that immediately upon the clause being forfeited, the seller must decide whether he wishes to enforce the forfeiture clause or rather to demand the price, and that if he has chosen the forfeiture clause, he cannot afterwards change his mind.
§18.3.4.3In commissoriam etiam hoc solet conuenire, ut, si uenditor eundem fundum uenderet, quanto minoris uendiderit, id a priore emptore exigat: erit itaque aduersus eum ex uendito actio.
In a forfeiture clause, it is also customary to agree that if the seller should sell the same land, he may demand from the prior buyer by how much less he has sold it; and thus there will be an action on the sale against him.
§18.3.4.4Marcellus libro uicensimo dubitat, commissoria utrum tunc locum habet, si interpellatus non soluat, an uero si non optulerit.
Marcellus in his twentieth book doubts whether the forfeiture clause has place when the buyer, having been demanded, does not pay, or rather if he has not offered it.
et magis arbitror offerre eum debere, si uult se legis commissoriae potestate soluere: quod si non habet cui offerat, posse esse securum.
And I rather think that he ought to offer it if he wishes to free himself from the power of the forfeiture clause; but if he has no one to whom he may offer it, he can be secure.