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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §2.11.9.pr-2.11.9.1

Promises of Slaves to Appear and Penalties for Multiple Slaves

Passage 336 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Ulpian discusses the invalidity of a slave's promise to appear in court, and Labeo's view on the incurrence of the full penalty when one of several slaves fails to appear under a single stipulation, along with the availability of the plea of fraud.

[ULPIANUS libro septuagensimo septimo ad edictum. ] §2.11.9.prSi seruus iudicio se sisti promittat, non committitur stipulatio neque in eum neque in fideiussores eius.
[ULPIAN, on the Edict, book 77] If a slave promises that he will appear in court, the stipulation is not incurred either against him or against his sureties.
§2.11.9.1Si plurium seruorum nomine iudicio sistendi causa una stipulatione promittatur, poenam quidem integram committi, licet unus status non sit, Labeo ait, quia uerum sit omnes statos non esse: uerum si pro rata unius offeratur poena, exceptione doli usurum eum, qui ex hac stipulatione conuenitur.
If, in the name of several slaves, a promise is made by a single stipulation for the purpose of their appearing in court, Labeo says that the penalty indeed is incurred in its entirety, even if only one has failed to appear, because it is true that all have not appeared; but if the penalty is offered pro rata for one, the person who is sued under this stipulation will use the plea of fraud.

Notes

  1. §2.11.9.1status — status is the perfect participle of the verb sistere (to cause to stand, to present). Here, it is used with the subjunctive (non sit) after the concessive conjunction licet, meaning "having appeared" in court.
  2. §2.11.9.1committi — An infinitive in the accusative-and-infinitive construction governed by the main verb Labeo ait (Labeo says). In legal Latin, committere in the passive means that a penalty or stipulation is incurred or becomes actionable because a condition has been fulfilled (or breached).
  3. §2.11.9.1usurum — The future active infinitive usurum [esse], functioning as the predicate of an accusative-and-infinitive construction governed by Labeo ait. Its subject accusative is eum, and as a form of the deponent verb uti which governs the ablative, it takes the ablative phrase exceptione doli (plea of fraud) as its object.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §2.11.9.pr-2.11.9.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:2.11.9.pr-2.11.9.1

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