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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §21.1.64.pr-21.1.64.2

Valuation in Bulk Purchases and Habitual Vices in Beasts

Passage 3080 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Pomponius quotes Labeo to discuss the apportionment of valuation for individually defective items bought for a lump sum, the scope of liability for a breached warranty, and the distinction between a beast's accidental wandering and a habitual vice.

[POMPONIUS libro septimo decimo epistularum. ] §21.1.64.prLabeo scribit, si uno pretio plures seruos emisti et de uno agere uelis, interaestimationem seruorum proinde fieri debere, atque ut fieret in aestimationem bonitatis agri, cum ob euictam partem fundi agatur.
[POMPONIUS in the seventeenth book of Epistles.] Labeo writes that, if you have bought several slaves for a single price and wish to bring an action concerning one of them, an apportionment of the valuation of the slaves must be made in the same way as would be done in the valuation of the quality of land when an action is brought on account of the eviction of a part of the estate.
§21.1.64.1Idem ait, si uno pretio plures seruos uendidisti sanosque esse promisisti et pars dumtaxat eorum minus sana sit, de omnibus 'aduersus dictum promissum' recte agi. §21.1.64.2Ibidem ait errare et fugere iumentum posse, nec tamen erronem aut fugitiuum esse agi posse.
The same writer says that, if you have sold several slaves for a single price and promised that they are healthy, and only some of them are less than healthy, an action may rightly be brought concerning all of them "against what was declared or promised." In the same place he says that a beast of burden can wander and run away, but yet it cannot be sued on the ground that it is a wanderer or a runaway.

Notes

  1. 21.1.64.printeraestimationem — A technical term referring to the apportionment or mutual valuation of individual items bought together for a lump sum, taking into account their respective qualities or values.
  2. 21.1.64.prob euictam partem fundi — euictam is the perfect passive participle of euincere (to evict). It refers to a lawsuit arising from the eviction (legal recovery by a third party with a superior title) of a portion of the sold land.
  3. 21.1.64.1aduersus dictum promissum — Meaning "against what was declared or promised," a formulaic expression representing the ground of action under the aedilian edict when a defect contrary to the seller's representations is found. It is treated substantively as the object of the preposition aduersus.
  4. 21.1.64.2erronem aut fugitiuum esse — In this accusative-with-infinitive construction, while the subject is the neuter noun iumentum, the complements erronem (accusative of the masculine noun erro) and fugitiuum (accusative of the masculine noun/adjective) are masculine. This gender discordance arises because these legal formulae, originally framed for human slaves, are being extended to beasts of burden.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §21.1.64.pr-21.1.64.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:21.1.64.pr-21.1.64.2

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