Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §42.8.9.pr

Liability of Fraudulent Buyer on Resale to a Bona Fide Buyer

Passage 7010 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section explains that if property bought in bad faith from an insolvent debtor is resold to a third party in good faith, the second buyer is not liable, whereas the first buyer who acted in bad faith is liable for the full price received.

[PAULUS libro sexagensimo secundo ad edictum. ] §42.8.9.prIs, qui a debitore, cuius bona possessa sunt, sciens rem emit, iterum alii bona fide ementi uendidit: quaesitum est, an secundus emptor conueniri potest.

[PAULUS, On the Edict, Book 62] A person who, knowing the circumstances, bought a thing from a debtor whose assets had been possessed, and sold it again to another purchasing in good faith: it was asked whether the second buyer can be sued.

sed uerior est Sabini sententia bona fide emptorem non teneri, quia dolus ei dumtaxat nocere debeat, qui eum admisit, quemadmodum diximus non teneri eum, si ab ipso debitore ignorans emerit: is autem, qui dolo malo emit, bona fide autem ementi uendidit, in solidum pretium rei, quod accepit, tenebitur.

But Sabinus' opinion that the buyer in good faith is not liable is more correct, because bad faith should only harm the one who admitted it, just as we have said that he is not liable if he bought from the debtor himself in ignorance. On the other hand, the one who bought in bad faith and sold to one purchasing in good faith will be liable for the whole amount of the price of the thing which he received.

Notes

42.8.9.prsciens — The participle sciens ('knowing') indicates that the subject is aware of the fact expressed in the preceding relative clause cuius bona possessa sunt ('whose assets have been possessed'), thereby constituting legal 'bad faith' (mala fides).
42.8.9.pran secundus emptor conueniri potest — In the indirect question introduced by the conjunction an, the indicative (potest) is used instead of the subjunctive (possit), which is standard in classical Latin. This reflects colloquial or later Latin usage, or a stylistic feature in legal texts when presenting a concrete query.
42.8.9.prqui eum admisit — The pronoun eum, which is the object of the verb admisit, refers in context to the preceding noun dolus ('bad faith', masculine singular). Here, admittere is used in the sense of 'to commit' or 'to admit' a wrong or bad faith.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §42.8.9.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:42.8.9.pr

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