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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §44.7.10.pr

Criteria of Natural Obligations and Non-Recovery of Payment

Passage 7295 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Ulpianus explains that the existence of natural obligations is judged not only by the availability of an action, but also by the impossibility of reclaiming a payment once made.

[ULPIANUS libro quadragensimo septimo ad Sabinum. ] §44.7.10.prNaturales obligationes non eo solo aestimantur, si actio aliqua eorum nomine competit, uerum etiam eo, si soluta pecunia repeti non possit.
[ULPIANUS, from the forty-seventh book on Sabinus.] Natural obligations are not evaluated solely by this, whether some action lies in their name, but also by this, if money once paid cannot be recovered.

Notes

  1. §44.7.10.preo solo ..., uerum etiam eo, si — The ablatives of the demonstrative pronoun, "eo solo" and "eo", point forward to the subsequent "si" clauses (which, though conditional in form, function here essentially as noun clauses explaining the content) and serve as ablatives of means or instrument with "aestimantur" (are evaluated).
  2. §44.7.10.prsoluta pecunia — The perfect passive participle feminine singular nominative "soluta" (from "solvere", to pay) modifies the noun "pecunia" (money). Meaning "money having been paid," it functions as the subject (nominative) of the passive infinitive "repeti" (to be recovered).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §44.7.10.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:44.7.10.pr

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