Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §41.7.5.pr-41.7.5.1

Usucapion of Purchased Abandoned Property and Immediate Acquisition

Passage 6831 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This passage discusses the validity of usucapion when purchasing an abandoned item from its possessor, drawing an analogy to gifts between spouses, and explains that abandoned property immediately transfers to whoever finds it, based on the presumed intent of the owner.

[POMPONIUS libro trigensimo secundo ad Sabinum. ] §41.7.5.prSi id, quod pro derelicto habitum possidebas, ego sciens in ea causa esse abs te emerim, me usucapturum constat nec obstare, quod in bonis tuis non fuerit: nam et si tibi rem ab uxore donatam sciens emero, quia quasi uolente et concedente domino id faceres, idem iuris est.
[POMPONIUS, from his thirty-second book on Sabinus.] If I, knowing it to be in that condition, should buy from you that which you were possessing as abandoned, it is clear that I will acquire it by usucapion, and it is no obstacle that it was not among your goods; for even if I, knowingly, buy from you a thing given to you by your wife, because you would do this, as it were, with the owner willing and consenting, the same law applies.
§41.7.5.1Id, quod quis pro derelicto habuerit, continuo meum fit: sicuti cum quis aes sparserit aut aues amiserit, quamuis incertae personae uoluerit eas esse, tamen eius fierent, cui casus tulerit ea, quae, cum quis pro derelicto habeat, simul intellegitur uoluisse alicuius fieri.
That which someone has abandoned immediately becomes mine; just as when someone has scattered bronze coins or let birds go, although he wanted them to belong to an uncertain person, yet they would become the property of him to whom chance has brought them; which things, when someone abandons them, he is understood at the same time to have wanted to become the property of someone.

Notes

  1. §41.7.5.prin ea causa esse — An accusative with infinitive clause acting as the object of the participle sciens. Here, ea causa refers back to pro derelicto habitum (the state of being abandoned).
  2. §41.7.5.pridem iuris — A combination of the neuter pronoun idem and the partitive genitive iuris (of law), meaning "the same rule of law applies" or "the legal result is the same."
  3. §41.7.5.1ea, quae — The pronoun ea is the object of the verb tulerit and simultaneously serves as the antecedent of the relative pronoun quae. The temporal clause cum quis... is embedded within this relative clause.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §41.7.5.pr-41.7.5.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:41.7.5.pr-41.7.5.1

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