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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §19.2.36.pr

Allocation of Risk and Force Majeure in Contracts for Work

Passage 2857 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Dictates the rules for the allocation of risk in contracts for work before approval, covering lump-sum contracts, unit-based contracts, delays caused by the employer, and loss by force majeure.

[Florentinus libro septimo institutionum. ] §19.2.36.prOpus quod auersione locatum est donec adprobetur, conductoris periculum est: quod uero ita conductum sit, ut in pedes mensurasue praestetur, eatenus conductoris periculo est, quatenus admensum non sit: et in utraque causa nociturum locatori, si per eum steterit, quo minus opus adprobetur uel admetiatur.
[FLORENTINUS, from the seventh book of Institutes.] A work which has been let out in block is at the risk of the contractor until it is approved; but that which has been so contracted for that it is to be furnished by feet or measurements is at the risk of the contractor only so far as it has not been measured. And in both cases, it will be to the disadvantage of the employer if it is due to him that the work is not approved or measured.
si tamen ui maiore opus prius interciderit quam adprobaretur, locatoris periculo est, nisi si aliud actum sit: non enim amplius praestari locatori oporteat, quam quod sua cura atque opera consecutus esset.
If, however, the work should perish by force majeure before it is approved, it is at the risk of the employer, unless something else was agreed; for no more ought to be secured to the employer than what he would have achieved by his own care and labor.

Notes

  1. 19.2.36.prper eum steterit, quo minus — Subjunctive perfect of the idiom stat per aliquem, quominus, meaning 'it is due to someone that ... not' or 'someone prevents ... from'. Here it indicates that the lack of approval or measurement is attributable to the employer (locator).
  2. 19.2.36.prconsecutus esset — Subjunctive pluperfect. It functions as the apodosis of a contrary-to-fact condition, expressing a potential outcome under a hypothetical past situation: 'what the employer would have achieved (had he undertaken the work himself) by his own care and labor'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §19.2.36.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:19.2.36.pr

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