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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §18.6.20.pr

Buyer's Default on Price: Liability for Interest, Not Lost Profit

Passage 2753 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

It regulates that if the buyer defaults on paying the price, they are only liable for interest, and not for the lost profits the seller might have obtained through trade or other means.

[HERMOGENIANUS libro secundo iuris epitomarum. ] §18.6.20.prUenditori si emptor in pretio soluendo moram fecerit, usuras dumtaxat praestabit, non omne omnino, quod uenditor mora non facta consequi potuit, ueluti si negotiator fuit et pretio soluto ex mercibus plus quam ex usuris quaerere potuit.
[HERMOGENIANUS in the second book of Epitomes of Law.] If the buyer should commit default in paying the price to the seller, he shall only pay interest, and not absolutely everything which the seller could have obtained if no default had been made; as, for instance, if the seller was a merchant and, upon the price being paid, could have acquired more profit from goods than from interest.

Notes

  1. §18.6.20.prmora non facta — An ablative absolute construction, representing here a hypothetical condition equivalent to a contrary-to-fact clause ("if no default had been made").
  2. §18.6.20.prpotuit — The indicative perfect form potuit of the verb possum is used in the apodosis of a contrary-to-fact conditional sentence where a pluperfect subjunctive might be expected. This reflects the Latin grammatical tendency to use the indicative for verbs of possibility or obligation in such clauses.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §18.6.20.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:18.6.20.pr

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