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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §2.11.14.pr

Validity of Appearance Stipulation by a Procurator Without Penalty

Passage 341 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

If a procurator stipulates only for the appearance of a party without a penalty, it would normally be ineffective as he has no personal interest, but it can be argued that the principal's interest should be considered to make the stipulation valid.

[NERATIUS libro secundo membranarum. ] §2.11.14.prSi procurator ita stipulatus est, ut sistat dumtaxat eum quem stipularetur, non etiam poenam si status non esset stipularetur: propemodum nullius momenti est ea stipulatio, quia procuratoris, quod ad ipsius utilitatem pertinet, nihil interest sisti.
[NERATIUS, Parchments, book 2] If a procurator has stipulated only that he should produce the person for whom he stipulates, and not also for a penalty if that person should not be produced: that stipulation is of almost no effect, because as far as his own interest is concerned, it does not matter to the procurator at all whether the person is produced.
sed cum alienum negotium in stipulando egerit, potest defendi non procuratoris, sed eius cuius negotium gesserit utilitatem in ea re spectandam esse: ut quantum domini litis interfuit sisti, tantum ex ea stipulatione non stato reo procuratori debeatur.
But since he has conducted another's business in stipulating, it can be maintained that we should look to the interest not of the procurator, but of the person whose business he has conducted: so that, if the defendant is not produced, there is due to the procurator from that stipulation as much as it mattered to the owner of the suit that the person should be produced.
eadem et fortius adhuc dici possunt, si procurator ita stipulatus esset ‘quanti ea res erit': ut hanc conceptionem uerborum non ad ipsius, sed ad domini utilitatem relatam interpretemur.
The same can be said even more strongly if the procurator had stipulated 'for whatever the value of the matter shall be': so that we should interpret this form of words as referring not to his own interest, but to that of the owner.

Notes

  1. 2.11.14.prprocuratoris ... nihil interest sisti — The impersonal verb interest takes the genitive of the person concerned (procuratoris) and an infinitive (sisti, 'to be produced') representing the subject of interest. The clause 'quod ad ipsius utilitatem pertinet' limits this interest strictly to the personal benefit of the procurator.
  2. 2.11.14.prquantum domini litis interfuit sisti, tantum ... debeatur — This sentence uses the correlative quantum ... tantum ('as much as ... so much') to express proportion. It indicates that the amount due to the procurator (debeatur) should equal the monetary value of the interest (interfuit) the owner of the suit (dominus litis) had in the defendant's appearance.
  3. 2.11.14.prnon stato reo — An ablative absolute construction consisting of the perfect participle status (from sistere, 'to produce') and the noun reo (defendant), accompanied by the negation non, expressing the conditional meaning 'if the defendant is not produced'.
  4. 2.11.14.prquanti ea res erit — The word quanti is a genitive of value, representing a standard formulaic expression in stipulations to denote the future monetary value or interest of the matter in question.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §2.11.14.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:2.11.14.pr

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