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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §23.3.46.pr-23.3.46.2

Risk and Ratification of Unauthorized Dowry Receipts

Passage 3420 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section outlines the rules on risk allocation and ratification when a slave or a son-in-power receives a promise or delivery of dowry, as well as the legal relations arising from an alternative promise of dowry.

[IULIANUS libro sexto decimo digestorum. ] §23.3.46.prQuemadmodum inuito domino seruus stipulatus adquirit, ita, si dotem domini nomine sibi promitti patiatur, obligatio domino adquiritur.
[JULIANUS in the sixteenth book of Digests.] Just as a slave acquires through a stipulation even against the will of his master, so, if he allows a dowry to be promised to himself in the name of his master, the obligation is acquired for the master.
sed neque periculum dominus praestare debebit (si forte debitur mulieris dotem promiserit) neque culpam.
But the master will not have to guarantee against either the risk (if by chance the debtor of the woman has promised the dowry) or fault.
traditione quoque rei dotalis in persona serui uel filii familias facta dos constituitur ita, ut neque periculum nec culpam dominus aut pater praestet.
Also, when delivery of the dotal property is made in the person of a slave or a son-in-power, the dowry is established in such a way that neither the master nor the father guarantees against the risk or fault.
igitur hanc dotem periculo mulieris esse dico, quamdiu dominus uel pater ratam promissionem uel donationem habuerit: ideoque etiam manente matrimonio res quas tradiderit condictione repetituram, item incerti condictione consecuturam, ut promissione liberetur.
Therefore, I say that this dowry is at the risk of the woman as long as the master or the father has not ratified the promise or the donation; and for this reason, even while the marriage continues, she will recover by a condictio the things she delivered, and likewise she will obtain by a condictio incerti that she be released from the promise.
§23.3.46.1Si debitori suo mulier nuptura ita dotem promississet: 'quod mihi debes aut fundus Sempronianus doti tibi erit, utrum mulier uellet, id in dote erit: et si quidem debitum maluisset dotis nomine apud uirum remanere, potest ea exceptione se tueri aduersus petentem fundum: quod si fundum dedisset, pecuniam marito condicet.
If a woman about to marry should have promised a dowry to her debtor in this way: 'What you owe me or the Sempronian estate shall be a dowry for you,' whichever the woman preferred, that will be in the dowry. And if indeed she had preferred the debt to remain with her husband under the name of dowry, she can defend herself by an exception against him when he sues for the estate; but if she has given the estate, she will claim the money from her husband by a condictio.
§23.3.46.2Pater etiamsi falso existimans se filiae suae debitorem esse dotem promississet, obligabitur.
A father, even if he promised a dowry falsely believing that he was a debtor to his daughter, will be bound.

Notes

  1. §23.3.46.prrepetituram — Part of the accusative-with-infinitive (Aci) construction governed by the preceding verb `dico`. It is a future active infinitive (`repetituram esse`) with both its subject accusative `mulierem` and the auxiliary `esse` omitted. The subsequent `consecuturam` shares this structure.
  2. §23.3.46.prdebitur — A scribal variant or error for `debitor` (debtor). In this context, it functions as a nominative singular noun referring to the woman's debtor.
  3. §23.3.46.prratam promissionem uel donationem habuerit — In the idiomatic expression `ratum habere` (to ratify), because the direct object `promissionem uel donationem` consists of feminine nouns, the adjective `ratus` agrees with them in the feminine accusative singular as `ratam`.
  4. §23.3.46.1quod si fundum dedisset — The relative pronoun `quod` in the neuter accusative singular at the beginning of the sentence serves as a transitional conjunction ('but if', 'and if'). `dedisset` is in the pluperfect subjunctive, indicating an action assumed to have occurred prior to the main clause's future action (`condicet`).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §23.3.46.pr-23.3.46.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:23.3.46.pr-23.3.46.2

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