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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §18.3.5.pr

Restitution of Fruits upon Forfeiture of Sale

Passage 2694 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

In a sale with a forfeiture clause where the contract is annulled if the price is not paid within a certain limit, this text discusses the ownership of fruits gathered in the meantime and Aristo's opinion that the seller should have an action to recover them from the defaulting buyer.

[NERATIUS libro quinto membranarum. ] §18.3.5.prLege fundo uendito dicta, ut, si intra certum tempus pretium solutum non sit, res inempta sit, de fructibus, quos interim emptor percepisset, hoc agi intellegendum est, ut emptor interim eos sibi suo quoque iure perciperet: sed si fundus reuenisset, Aristo existimabat uenditori de his iudicium in emptorem dandum esse, quia nihil penes eum residere oporteret ex re, in qua fidem fefellisset.
[NERATIUS, Membranes, book 5.] When a tract of land is sold with a clause declared that if the price is not paid within a certain time, the property shall be unsold, it is to be understood, concerning the fruits which the buyer had gathered in the meantime, that this was intended: that the buyer should in the meantime gather them for himself by his own right also. But if the land should return, Aristo was of the opinion that an action concerning these fruits should be given to the seller against the buyer, because nothing ought to remain in his possession from a matter in which he had broken faith.

Notes

  1. 18.3.5.prsuo quoque iure — The adverb quoque (also/even) modifies suo iure (by one's own right), indicating that the buyer could gather the fruits "by his own right also" as a temporary owner.
  2. 18.3.5.prhoc agi intellegendum est — The clause hoc agi is an accusative with infinitive functioning as the subject of the impersonal gerundive construction intellegendum est. The content of hoc is explained by the following ut clause. The present passive infinitive agi is used here in the contractual sense of "to be agreed upon" or "to be intended."
  3. 18.3.5.prnihil penes eum residere oporteret — The verb oporteret in the clause introduced by quia is in the imperfect subjunctive due to sequence of tenses after the past-tense main verb existimabat, reflecting Aristo's subjective reasoning in indirect speech. nihil is the subject of the infinitive residere, meaning "nothing ought to remain in his possession."

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §18.3.5.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:18.3.5.pr

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