[IDEM libro trigesimo primo ad Quintum Mucium. ] §41.1.54.promo liber hereditatem nobis adquirere non potest, qui bona fide nobis seruit: adquiret, si tamen sponte sua sciens condicionem suam adierit: nam si iussu nostro adierit, neque sibi neque nobis adquiret, si non habuerit animum sibi adquirendi: quod si eam mentem habuit, sibi adquirit.
[THE SAME, from the commentary on Quintus Mucius, book 31] A free person who serves us in good faith cannot acquire an inheritance for us; however, if he has entered upon it voluntarily, knowing his own condition, he will acquire it (for himself). For if he entered upon it by our command, he will acquire it neither for himself nor for us, if he did not have the intention of acquiring for himself; but if he had that mind, he acquires for himself.
§41.1.54.1Item promittendo nobis liber homo, qui bona fide nobis seruit, ut et emendo uel uendendo, uel locando uel conducendo, obligari ipso iure poterit.
Likewise, by promising to us, a free person who serves us in good faith, just as by buying or selling, or by letting or hiring, can be bound by operation of law.
§41.1.54.2Sed damnum dando damni iniuriae tenebitur, ut tamen culpam in damno dando exigere debeamus grauiorem nec tamen leuem quam ab extraneo.
But by causing damage he will be liable for unlawful damage, provided, however, that we ought to require a graver degree of fault in causing damage, and not a light one, compared to a stranger.
§41.1.54.3At si iussu nostro quid in re nostra gerant uel absentibus nobis quasi procuratores aliquid agant, danda erit in eos actio.
But if they manage something in our business by our command, or act in our absence as if they were procurators, an action must be granted against them.
§41.1.54.3aNon solum si eos emerimus, sed etiam si donati fuerint nobis aut ex dotis nomine aut ex legati pertinere ad nos coeperunt aut ex hereditate, idem praestabunt: nec solum si nostros putauerimus, sed et si communes aut fructuarios, ut tamen, quod adquisituri non essent, si re uera communes aut usuarii essent, id hodieque non adquirant.
Not only if we bought them, but also if they were donated to us, or began to belong to us under the name of dowry or legacy, or from an inheritance, they will perform the same. And not only if we believed them to be ours, but also if we believed them to be common or subject to a usufruct; provided, however, that what they would not have acquired if they were in truth common or subject to a use, they do not acquire even today.
§41.1.54.4Quidquid tamen liber homo uel alienus quiue bona fide nobis seruit non adquirit nobis, id uel sibi liber uel alienus seruus domino suo adquiret: excepto eo quod uix est, ut liber homo possidendo usucapere possit, quia nec possidere intellegitur, qui ipse possideretur.
Whatever, however, a free person or another's slave who serves us in good faith does not acquire for us, the free person will acquire for himself, or the other's slave for his own master; except that it is hardly possible for a free person to acquire by usucapion through possession, because he who is himself possessed is not understood to possess.
sed nec per seruum alienum, quem nos bona fide possidemus, dominus peculiari nomine ignorans usucapere poterit, sicuti ne per fugitiuum quidem, quem non possidet.
But neither can a master, through another's slave whom we possess in good faith, acquire by usucapion under the name of peculium while being ignorant of it, just as he cannot even through a runaway slave whom he does not possess.