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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §19.5.19.pr-19.5.19.1

Praescriptis Verbis Actions in Sales for Loans and Sureties

Passage 2906 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Citing Labeo, the text discusses the application of actions on prescribed words (actions on the case) in situations involving the sale of property for a loan, or agreements to provide a surety, which do not fall under standard contractual categories.

[IDEM libro trigesimo primo ad edictum. ] §19.5.19.prRogasti me, ut tibi nummos mutuos darem: ego cum non haberem, dedi tibi rem uendendam, ut pretio utereris.
[THE SAME, in the thirty-first book on the Edict.] You asked me to give you money as a loan; since I did not have it, I gave you a thing to be sold, so that you might use the price.
si non uendidisti aut uendidisti quidem, pecuniam autem non accepisti mutuam, tutius est ita agere, ut Labeo ait, praescriptis uerbis, quasi negotio quodam inter nos gesto proprii contractus.
If you did not sell it, or if you did sell it but did not receive the money as a loan, it is safer, as Labeo says, to sue on prescribed words, as if some transaction of a contract of its own kind had been carried out between us.
§19.5.19.1Si praedium pro te obligauero, deinde placuerit inter nos, ut mihi fideiussorem praestares, nec facias, melius esse dico praescriptis uerbis agi, nisi merces interuenit: nam si interuenit, ex locato esse actionem.
If I have mortgaged an estate on your behalf, and it was subsequently agreed between us that you should provide a surety for me, and you do not do so, I say that it is better to sue on prescribed words, unless a fee has intervened; for if it has intervened, the action is on letting.

Notes

  1. 19.5.19.prrem uendendam — The gerundive uendendam modifies the direct object rem to express "a thing to be sold," indicating the purpose for which the object was given.
  2. 19.5.19.prpecuniam autem non accepisti mutuam — The adjective mutuam predicatively modifies pecuniam ("did not receive the money as a loan"). It indicates a situation where the money obtained from the sale was not formally converted into or treated as a loan between the parties.
  3. 19.5.19.prnegotio quodam inter nos gesto proprii contractus — This features an ablative absolute construction negotio ... gesto introduced by the conjunction quasi ("as if some transaction had been carried out"). The genitive proprii contractus ("of a contract of its own kind") modifies negotio, denoting a unique agreement that does not fall under standard contract categories.
  4. 19.5.19.1melius esse dico praescriptis uerbis agi — This is an accusative with infinitive (ACI) construction depending on dico. The passive infinitive agi is used impersonally ("for an action to be brought"), and melius esse ("to be better") serves as its predicate.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §19.5.19.pr-19.5.19.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:19.5.19.pr-19.5.19.1

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