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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §3.4.7.pr-3.4.7.2

Corporate Debts and Continuity Despite Member Changes

Passage 568 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section discusses the nature of actions, debts, and credits concerning corporations and their individual members, explaining the continuity of a corporation even when its members change or are reduced to a single person.

[ULPIANUS libro decimo ad edictum. ] §3.4.7.prSicut municipum nomine actionem praetor dedit, ita et aduersus eos iustissime edicendum putauit.
[ULPIAN, in the tenth book on the Edict.] Just as the praetor granted an action in the name of the townsmen, so also he thought it most just that an edict should be issued against them.
sed et legato, qui in negotium publicum sumptum fecit, puto dandam actionem in municipes.
But I also think that an action against the townsmen should be granted to an envoy who has made expenditures for public business.
§3.4.7.1Si quid uniuersitati debetur, singulis non debetur: nec quod debet uniuersitas singuli debent.
If anything is owed to a corporation, it is not owed to the individual members; nor do the individual members owe what the corporation owes.
§3.4.7.2In decurionibus uel aliis uniuersitatibus nihil refert, utrum omnes idem maneant an pars maneat uel omnes immutati sint.
In the case of decurions or other corporations, it makes no difference whether all members remain the same, or a part remains, or all have been changed.
sed si uniuersitas ad unum redit, magis admittitur posse eum conuenire et conueniri, cum ius omnium in unum recciderit et stet nomen uniuersitatis.
But if a corporation is reduced to a single person, it is rather accepted that he can sue and be sued, since the rights of all have fallen back upon one person and the name of the corporation remains.

Notes

  1. §3.4.7.predicendum — An impersonal neuter gerundive with esse understood, expressing necessity. The logical subject of the action is the praetor (praetor) implied by the context.
  2. §3.4.7.1singulis — Dative plural of the adjective singulus, referring to the "individual members" of the corporation, in contrast to the corporation (uniuersitas) itself as a whole.
  3. §3.4.7.2conuenire et conueniri — A contrast of active and passive. conuenire means "to summon (to court), i.e., to sue," and conueniri is its passive, meaning "to be sued." Both infinitives depend on posse, with eum serving as the subject-accusative.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §3.4.7.pr-3.4.7.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:3.4.7.pr-3.4.7.2

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