Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §44.7.17.pr

Discharge of Debtors through Concurrence of Lucrative Titles

Passage 7302 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This fragment states the rule regarding the concurrence of lucrative titles: all debtors who owe a specific thing by a lucrative title are discharged if that very thing has already come to the creditor by another lucrative title.

[IDEM libro trigensimo tertio digestorum. ] §44.7.17.prOmnes debitores, qui speciem ex causa lucratiua debent, liberantur, cum ea species ex causa lucratiua ad creditores peruenisset.
[THE SAME, from the thirty-third book of Digests.] All debtors who owe a specific thing by a lucrative title are released when that specific thing has come to the creditors by a lucrative title.

Notes

  1. §44.7.17.prex causa lucratiua — Meaning "by a lucrative (or gratuitous) title." It refers to a cause of acquisition without counter-performance, such as a gift (donatio) or a legacy (legatum), as opposed to an onerous title (causa onerosa). Under Roman law, two lucrative titles cannot concur on the same specific thing (duae causae lucrativae concurrere non possunt); hence, if the creditor acquires the thing by one lucrative title, the debtor under the other lucrative title is discharged.
  2. §44.7.17.prspeciem — Meaning "a specific thing" (accusative of species). This concept is contrasted with generic things (genus); whereas an obligation to deliver generic goods is not extinguished by the acquisition of equivalent items, an obligation concerning a specific, unique thing becomes impossible and redundant once that very thing is possessed by the creditor, resulting in the debtor's release.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §44.7.17.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:44.7.17.pr

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