Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §39.2.6.pr

Collapse Without Prior Security and Relief by Abandonment

Passage 6127 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Gaius explains that if a neighbor's house collapses without prior security being given, no action for damages is available, and most jurists agree that the neighbor cannot even be forced to clear the debris if he abandons all of it.

[GAIUS libro primo ad edictum prouinciale. ] §39.2.6.prEuenit, ut nonnumquam damno dato nulla nobis competat actio non interposita antea cautione, ueluti si uicini aedes ruinosae in meas aedes ceciderint: adeo ut plerisque placuerit nec cogi quidem eum posse, ut rudera tollat, si modo omnia quae iaceant pro derelicto habeat.
[GAIUS libro primo ad edictum prouinciale.] It sometimes happens that, when damage has been done, no action is available to us if security has not been previously given; as, for example, if a neighbor's ruinous house should collapse onto my house. This is so much the case that it has pleased most authorities that he cannot even be compelled to remove the debris, provided that he treats everything that lies there as abandoned.

Notes

  1. §39.2.6.prnon interposita antea cautione — An ablative expression of absolute condition ("if security has not been previously given"). The term 'cautione' here refers to the security for threatened damage (cautio damni infecti).
  2. §39.2.6.prpro derelicto habeat — The idiom 'habere pro...' means 'to regard as' or 'to treat as.' 'derelicto' is the substantively used neuter singular perfect passive participle of 'derelinquere' (to abandon), indicating a thing abandoned and implying the relinquishment of ownership.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §39.2.6.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:39.2.6.pr

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