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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §41.10.3.pr

Usucapion of Things Delivered for Nonexistent Debts

Passage 6849 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Pomponius presents his and Neratius' view that a slave delivered to fulfill a non-existent debt can be acquired by usucapion "as one's own," provided that the recipient is in good faith.

[POMPONIUS libro uicensimo secundo ad Sabinum. ] §41.10.3.prHominem, quem ex stipulatione te mihi debere falso existimabas, tradidisti mihi: si scissem mihi nihil debere, usu eum non capiam: quod si nescio, uerius est, ut usucapiam, quia ipsa traditio ex causa, quam ueram esse existimo, sufficit ad efficiendum, ut id quod mihi traditum est pro meo possideam.
[POMPONIUS, from his twenty-second book on Sabinus.] You delivered to me a slave whom you falsely believed you owed me on the basis of a stipulation: if I had known that you owed me nothing, I would not acquire him by usucapion; but if I did not know this, it is more correct that I should acquire him by usucapion, because the delivery itself, based on a cause which I believe to be true, is sufficient to bring it about that I possess what was delivered to me as my own.
et ita Neratius scripsit idque uerum puto.
And so Neratius wrote, and I think this is true.

Notes

  1. §41.10.3.prsi scissem mihi nihil debere, usu eum non capiam — This is a mixed conditional sentence, where the protasis is in the pluperfect subjunctive (scissem = scivissem, representing a past contrary-to-fact condition: 'if I had known'), and the apodosis is in the future indicative or present subjunctive (capiam: 'I would not acquire'). This structure with tense anacoluthon reflects the legal principle that the presence of bad faith at the past moment of delivery determines the failure of usucapion in the present or future.
  2. §41.10.3.prad efficiendum, ut id quod mihi traditum est pro meo possideam — The preposition ad with the accusative gerund efficiendum denotes purpose, which in turn introduces the ut-clause (ut ... possideam) as its object/result clause. It forms a double structure of purpose and result, meaning 'to bring it about that I possess what was delivered to me as my own.'

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §41.10.3.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:41.10.3.pr

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