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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §40.9.23.pr

Manumission by an Insolvent Debtor as Fraud on Creditors

Passage 6545 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

It rules that when a debtor who knows he is insolvent grants liberty to a slave, it is always considered in fraud of creditors, even if the slave deserved it.

[IDEM libro quarto ex uariis lectionibus. ] §40.9.23.prSemper in fraudem creditorum libertas datur ab eo, qui sciret se soluendo non esse, quamuis bene dedisset merenti hoc.
[THE SAME, from the fourth book of Various Readings.] Liberty is always given in fraud of creditors by one who knew that he was insolvent, even though he had given it with good reason to one who deserved this.

Notes

  1. §40.9.23.prsoluendo non esse — soluendo is the dative of the gerundive of solvere ('to pay'), which combines with esse as a dative of purpose to form the legal idiom 'to be solvent' (soluendo esse) or 'to be insolvent' (soluendo non esse).
  2. §40.9.23.prqui sciret — The imperfect subjunctive sciret following the relative pronoun qui is a subjunctive of characteristic, referring to a general category of person ('one who is of such a character as to know...'), rather than describing a specific factual individual.
  3. §40.9.23.prmerenti hoc — merenti is the dative singular of the present participle of mereri ('to deserve'), serving as the indirect object of datur or dedisset ('to one who deserves'). The neuter accusative pronoun hoc is the direct object of the participle merenti, meaning 'one who deserves this (i.e., receiving liberty)'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §40.9.23.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:40.9.23.pr

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