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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §41.4.11.pr

Usucapion Based on Justifiable Mistake of Purchase

Passage 6813 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Discusses usucapion based on a mistaken belief of purchase, asserting that usucapion should be allowed if there is a just cause for the error, such as deception by an agent.

[AFRICANUS libro septimo quaestionum. ] §41.4.11.prQuod uolgo traditum est eum, qui existimat se quid emisse nec emerit, non posse pro emptore usucapere, hactenus uerum esse ait, si nullam iustam causam eius erroris emptor habeat: nam si forte seruus uel procurator, cui emendam rem mandasset, persuaserit ei se emisse atque ita tradiderit, magis esse, ut usucapio sequatur.
[AFRICANUS, from his seventh book of Questions.] The common tradition that a person who thinks he has bought something, when he has not bought it, cannot acquire it by usucapion as a purchaser, is true only so far, he says, as the purchaser has no just cause for his error; for if, by chance, a slave or an agent, to whom he had commissioned the purchase of a thing, should persuade him that he has bought it, and deliver it to him on that basis, it is more correct to say that usucapion follows.

Notes

  1. §41.4.11.prQuod uolgo traditum est... hactenus uerum esse ait — The clause starting with Quod ("The common tradition that...") serves as the object-like topic under the indirect discourse introduced by ait, with its validity qualified by hactenus... si... ("only so far, if...").
  2. §41.4.11.prcui emendam rem mandasset — emendam is a gerundive (future passive participle) in agreement with rem, expressing the purpose or duty of purchase when coupled with mandare (to commission).
  3. §41.4.11.prmagis esse, ut usucapio sequatur — The impersonal expression magis est ut... ("it is more appropriate that...") is here cast into the accusative and infinitive construction magis esse depending on the main verb ait, with sequatur in the subjunctive after ut.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §41.4.11.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:41.4.11.pr

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