Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §2.13.8.pr-2.13.8.1

Liability Standards and Assessment of Damages for Non-Production

Passage 360 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section defines the liability standards for a banker who fails to produce accounts, limiting it to fraud and gross negligence, and establishes that the damages must be assessed based on the plaintiff's interest at the time of the praetor's decree.

[ULPIANUS libro quarto ad edictum. ] §2.13.8.prUbi exigitur argentarius rationes edere, tunc punitur, cum dolo malo non exhibet: sed cuipam non praestabit nisi dolo proximam.
[ULPIANUS, on the Edict, book 4] When a banker is required to produce accounts, he is punished then, when he does not exhibit them through fraud; but he shall not be liable for fault unless it is closest to fraud.
dolo malo autem non edidit et qui malitiose edidit et qui in totum non edidit.
Moreover, both he who produced maliciously and he who did not produce at all have failed to produce through fraud.
§2.13.8.1Is autem, qui in hoc edictum incidit, id praestat, quod interfuit mea rationes edi, cum decerneretur a praetore, non quod hodie interest: et ideo licet interesse desiit uel minoris uel pluris interesse coepit, locum actio non habebit neque augmentum neque deminutionem.
But he who falls under this edict makes good that which was my interest for the accounts to be produced when it was decreed by the praetor, not what is the interest today; and therefore, even though it has ceased to be of interest, or has begun to be of less or of more interest, the action will have neither increase nor decrease.

Notes

  1. §2.13.8.prcuipam — The word cuipam in the manuscripts is clearly a clerical error for the accusative culpam (fault), which serves as the direct object of praestabit. The phrase dolo proximam ('closest to fraud') refers to gross negligence (culpa lata) in Roman legal doctrine.
  2. §2.13.8.1id praestat, quod interfuit mea rationes edi — The pronoun id is the antecedent explained by the following relative clause starting with quod. The impersonal verb interfuit (perfect of interest) is constructed with the ablative feminine singular possessive adjective mea to mean 'it was of interest to me'. The subject of interfuit is the accusative and infinitive (ACI) clause rationes edi ('that the accounts be produced').
  3. §2.13.8.1locum actio non habebit neque augmentum neque deminutionem — The juxtaposition of locum and actio is syntactically irregular, likely reflecting a scribal confusion or blending of actio locum non habebit ('the action will have no place') and actio non habebit augmentum ('the action will not have an increase'). The logical sense is that the action (specifically, the assessment of damages) will experience neither increase nor decrease regardless of subsequent changes in interest.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §2.13.8.pr-2.13.8.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:2.13.8.pr-2.13.8.1

Please note the AI-draft status of the translation and the date accessed.

Translation, notes and summary are AI-generated drafts, revised through reader feedback.