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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §4.4.32.pr

Payment after False Proof of Age and Curator Liability

Passage 734 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section discusses the liability of debtors and the varying degrees of risk borne by curators (depending on whether they knew the minor's actual age or shared in the error) when a minor falsely proves his full age to the governor and squanders paid debts.

[PAULUS libro primo quaestionum. ] §4.4.32.prMinor uiginti quinque annis adito praeside ex aspectu corporis falso probauit perfectam aetatem: curatores cum intellexissent esse minorem perseuerauerunt in administratione: medio tempore post probatam aetatem ante impletum uicensimum quintum annum solutae sunt adulescenti pecuniae debitae easque male consumpsit.
[PAULUS, in the first book of Questions.] A minor under twenty-five years of age, having approached the governor, falsely proved his full age based on his physical appearance. Although the curators understood that he was a minor, they continued in their administration. In the intervening time, after the proof of age but before the completion of his twenty-fifth year, the money due was paid to the young man, and he spent it wastefully.
quaero cuius sit periculum: et quid si curatores quoque in eodem errore perseuerassent, ut putarent maiorem esse et abstinuissent se ab administratione, curationem etiam restituissent, an periculum temporis, quod post probatam aetatem cessit, ad eos pertineat? respondi: hi, qui debita exsoluerunt, liberati iure ipso non debent iterum conueniri.
I ask on whom the risk falls; and what if the curators also had persisted in the same error, thinking that he was of full age, and had abstained from the administration, and had even surrendered the administration, does the risk of the period which elapsed after the proof of age belong to them? I replied: those who paid what was due, being discharged by operation of law, ought not to be sued again.
plane curatores, qui scientes eum minorem esse perseuerauerunt in eodem officio, non debuerunt eum pati accipere pecunias debitas et debebunt hoc nomine conueniri.
Clearly, the curators, who, knowing that he was a minor, continued in the same office, ought not to have permitted him to receive the money due, and they must be sued on this account.
quod si et ipsi decreto praesidis crediderunt et administrare cessauerunt uel etiam rationem reddiderunt, similes sunt ceteris debitoribus, ideoque non conueniuntur.
But if they also believed the decree of the governor and ceased to administer, or even rendered their accounts, they are in the same position as the other debtors, and therefore are not sued.

Notes

  1. §4.4.32.pradito praeside — An ablative absolute construction ('the governor having been approached'), meaning 'having approached the governor' or 'having applied to the governor'. The word praeses refers to the governor of a province.
  2. §4.4.32.prpost probatam aetatem — A construction of a noun with a perfect passive participle (similar to the *ab urbe condita* construction), where the participle expresses the action or completion of the state itself, translated as 'after the proof of age' (literally, 'after the age having been proved'). A similar structure appears in the subsequent phrase 'ante impletum uicensimum quintum annum' ('before the completion of his twenty-fifth year').
  3. §4.4.32.prnon debuerunt eum pati accipere — A multi-layered infinitive construction where the modal verb debeo (expressing obligation or propriety) is followed by the infinitive of patior (to permit/allow), which in turn takes an accusative with infinitive clause (with eum as the subject and accipere as the verb). It means 'they ought not to have permitted him to receive'.
  4. §4.4.32.prrationem reddiderunt — An idiomatic legal expression meaning 'to render accounts' or 'to submit financial accounts,' referring to the curator's obligation to present the financial accounts of the managed estate to the ward upon completing and surrendering their office (curatio).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §4.4.32.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:4.4.32.pr

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