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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §3.5.31.pr-3.5.31.1

Management of Affairs: Mistaken Payment and Unauthorized Receipt

Passage 603 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section discusses the application of the action for the management of affairs in cases where a guarantor mistakenly takes over a pledge and pays for another's contract, and where a mother receives gifts from her daughter's betrothed without her daughter's knowledge.

[IDEM libro tertio responsorum. ] §3.5.31.prFideiussor imperitia lapsus alterius quoque contractus, qui personam eius non contingebat, pignora uel hypothecas suscepit et utramque pecuniam creditori soluit, existimans indemnitati suae confusis praediis consuli posse.
[IDEM, Responses, Book III] A guarantor, falling into error through ignorance, took over the pledges or mortgages of another contract as well, which did not concern his person, and paid both sums of money to the creditor, thinking that his own indemnity could be provided for by merging the estates.
ob eas res iudicio mandati frustra conuenietur et ipse debitorem frustra conueniet, negotiorum autem gestorum actio utrique necessaria erit: in qua lite culpam aestimari satis est, non etiam casum, quia praedo fideiussor non uidetur.
Because of these matters, he will be sued in vain by an action on mandate, and he himself will sue the debtor in vain, but an action for the management of affairs will be necessary for both: in which lawsuit it is sufficient for negligence to be assessed, and not also fortuitous event, since the guarantor is not deemed a plunderer.
creditor ob id factum ad restituendum iudicio, quod de pignore dato redditur, cum uideatur ius suum uendidisse, non tenebitur.
The creditor, on account of this act, will not be liable to make restitution by the action that is brought for a given pledge, since he is deemed to have sold his right.
§3.5.31.1Ignorante uirgine mater a sponso filiae res donatas suscepit: quia mandati uel depositi cessat actio, negotiorum gestorum agitur.
Without the knowledge of the young woman, her mother received things given as a gift by her daughter's betrothed; because an action on mandate or deposit is not available, an action for the management of affairs is brought.

Notes

  1. 3.5.31.prconfusis praediis — Ablative absolute. It refers to the guarantor treating or merging several estates (subject to the pledge or mortgage) belonging to the debtor as one, or mixing them with his own estates.
  2. 3.5.31.priudicio, quod de pignore dato redditur — An expression with a relative clause referring to the 'action granted on account of a pledge given' (pigneraticia actio). The clause 'quod de pignore dato redditur' modifies 'iudicio', which depends on 'tenebitur'.
  3. 3.5.31.1Ignorante uirgine — Ablative absolute with a present participle, expressing the circumstance 'while the young woman was ignorant' (without her knowledge).
  4. 3.5.31.1negotiorum gestorum agitur — The passive 'agitur' is used impersonally ('an action is brought'), accompanied by the genitive 'negotiorum gestorum' (of the management of affairs), with the noun 'actio' being understood.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §3.5.31.pr-3.5.31.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:3.5.31.pr-3.5.31.1

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