[TRYPHONINUS libro secundo disputationum. ]
[TRYPHONINUS, Disputations, Book II] person who owed money without interest managed the affairs of his creditor.
§3.5.37.prQui sine usuris pecuniam debebat, creditoris sui gessit negotia: quaesitum est, an negotiorum gestorum actione summae illius usuras praestare debeat.
The question arose whether he ought to pay interest on that sum in an action on the management of affairs.
dixi, si a semet ipso exigere eum oportuit, debiturum usuras: quod si dies soluendae pecuniae tempore quo negotia gerebat nondum uenerat, usuras non debiturum: sed die praeterito si non intulit rationibus creditoribus cuius negotia gerebat eam pecuniam a se debitam, merito usuras bonae fidei iudicio praestaturum.
I said that if he ought to have demanded payment from himself, he would owe interest; but if the day for paying the money had not yet arrived at the time he was managing the affairs, he would not owe interest; however, if, after the day had passed, he did not enter that money owed by him into the accounts of the creditor whose affairs he was managing, he would justly pay interest in a bona fide action.
sed quas usuras debebit, uideamus: utrum eas, quibus aliis idem creditor faenerasset, an et maximas usuras: quoniam ubi quis eius pecuniam, cuius tutelam negotiaue administrat, aut magistratus municipii publicam in usus suos conuertit, maximas usuras praestat, ut est constitutum a diuis principibus.
But let us see what interest he will owe: whether that at which the same creditor would have lent to others, or even the highest interest? For where anyone converts to his own use the money of a person whose guardianship or affairs he administers, or where a municipal magistrate converts public money, he pays the highest interest, as was decreed by the deified emperors.
sed istius diuersa causa est, qui non sibi sumpsit ex administratione nummos, sed ab amico accepit et ante negotiorum administrationem.
But the case of this man is different, who did not take the money for himself out of his administration, but received it from a friend and before the administration of the affairs.
nam illi, de quibus constitutum est, cum gratuitam certe integram et abstinentem omni lucro praestare fidem deberent, licentia, qua uidentur abuti, maximis usuris uice cuiusdam poenae subiciuntur: hic bona ratione accepit ab alio mutuum et usuris, quia non soluit, non quia ex negotiis quae gerebat ad se pecuniam transtulit, condemnandus est.
For those concerning whom the decree was made, although they ought to have exhibited a gratuitous, certainly unimpeachable, and profit-abstaining loyalty, are subjected to the highest interest by way of a kind of penalty for the license which they are seen to abuse; whereas this man received a loan from another on good grounds, and he is to be condemned to interest because he did not pay, not because he transferred money to himself from the affairs he was managing.
multum autem refert, incipiat nunc debitum an ante nomen fuerit debitoris, quod satis est ex non usurario facere usurarium.
However, it makes a great difference whether the debt begins now, or whether there was previously a debt of the debtor, which is sufficient to make a non-interest-bearing debt interest-bearing.