Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §20.4.4.pr

Extinction of Prior Debt by Set-Off and Later Pledgee

Passage 2967 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The jurist discusses that if a debtor extinguishes his debt to a prior creditor by offsetting it with the price of another sold item, it is treated as equivalent to an actual cash payment, thereby giving priority to the subsequent creditor.

[POMPONIUS libro trigesimo quinto ad Sabinum. ] §20.4.4.prSi debitor, antequam a priore creditore pignus liberaret, idem illud ob pecuniam creditam alii pignori dedisset et, antequam utrique creditori solueret debitum, rem aliam priori creditori uendiderat creditumque pensauerit cum pretio rei uenditae, dicendum est perinde haberi debere, ac si priori creditori pecunia soluta esset: nec enim interesse, soluerit an pensauerit: et ideo posterioris creditoris causa est potior.
[POMPONIUS, in his thirty-fifth book on Sabinus.] If a debtor, before he freed the pledge from the prior creditor, had given that same pledge to another for a loaned sum of money, and, before he paid the debt to either creditor, had sold another thing to the prior creditor and offset the loan against the price of the sold thing, it must be said that it ought to be held just as if the money had been paid to the prior creditor; for indeed it makes no difference whether he paid or offset; and therefore the position of the subsequent creditor is stronger.

Notes

  1. §20.4.4.prperinde haberi debere, ac si priori creditori pecunia soluta esset — This is an accusative-with-infinitive construction (haberi debere) depending on the impersonal dicendum est. The comparative phrase perinde... ac si (just as if) is construed with the subjunctive pluperfect soluta esset to express a legal fiction, treating the set-off as equivalent to actual payment of money.
  2. §20.4.4.prnec enim interesse, soluerit an pensauerit — An accusative-with-infinitive of the impersonal verb interesse within indirect speech. It takes the alternative indirect question soluerit an pensauerit ("whether he paid or offset") as its subject, with the verbs in the perfect subjunctive.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §20.4.4.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:20.4.4.pr

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.