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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §21.2.8.pr

Eviction of Slave Offspring and Seller's Liability

Passage 3089 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

On the scope of the seller's liability (expectation interest) to the buyer of a slave. It states that if offspring of a female slave or an inheritance acquired through the slave is evicted, an action ex empto can be brought.

[IDEM libro quinto decimo digestorum. ] §21.2.8.prUenditor hominis emptori praestare debet, quanti eius interest hominem uenditoris fuisse.
[THE SAME, Digests, book fifteen.] The seller of a slave must make good to the buyer how much it was of interest to him that the slave had belonged to the seller.
quare siue partus ancillae siue hereditas, quam seruus iussu emptoris adierit, euicta fuerit, agi ex empto potest: et sicut obligatus est uenditor, ut praestet licere habere hominem quem uendidit, ita ea quoque quae per eum adquiri potuerunt praestare debet emptori, ut habeat.
Therefore, whether it is the offspring of a female slave or an inheritance which the slave has entered upon by order of the buyer that is evicted, an action can be brought ex empto; and just as the seller is bound to guarantee that it is permitted to hold the slave whom he sold, so also he must guarantee to the buyer, so that he may hold them, those things which could have been acquired through him.

Notes

  1. §21.2.8.prquanti eius interest hominem uenditoris fuisse — Syntactic construction of the impersonal verb interest. quanti is a genitive of value/degree. eius refers to the buyer (emptori). hominem uenditoris fuisse is an infinitive phrase serving as the subject of interest, where uenditoris is a possessive genitive ('that the slave had belonged to the seller'). The entire phrase refers to the buyer's expectation interest (quanti interest).
  2. §21.2.8.prlicere habere hominem — Structure within the ut-clause dependent on praestet. The infinitive habere acts as a complement to the impersonal infinitive licere ('to be permitted'), with hominem as the object of habere. The logical subject of habere is the buyer.
  3. §21.2.8.prper eum — The pronoun eum refers to the slave (hominem, quem uendidit). In Roman law, since a slave lacked legal capacity, they acted as an instrument of acquisition, expressed by per with the accusative.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §21.2.8.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:21.2.8.pr

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