Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §44.7.45.pr

Discharge of Debt upon Manumission and Death of a Slave

Passage 7330 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section explains why a debtor is not liable for impossibility of performance if they manumit a slave before default and the slave dies before the debtor is sued.

[IDEM libro quinto ad Plautium. ] §44.7.45.prIs, qui ex stipulatu Stichum debeat, si eum ante moram manumiserit et is, priusquam super eo promissor conueniretur, decesserit, non tenetur: non enim per eum stetisse uidetur, quo minus eum praestaret.

[THE SAME, from his fifth book on Plautius.] A person who owes Stichus under a stipulation is not liable if he manumits him before default and he dies before the promisor is sued concerning him; for it does not appear to have been due to him that he did not perform him.

Notes

44.7.45.prpriusquam super eo promissor conueniretur — The passive form of the verb conuenire carries the legal meaning of being summoned to court, i.e., "to be sued." The subjunctive imperfect conueniretur is used in the priusquam clause to denote anticipation or an event that had not yet occurred, rather than a simple chronological sequence.
44.7.45.prnon enim per eum stetisse uidetur, quo minus — The idiom per aliquem stat, quo minus... means "it is due to someone that... not..." or "someone is the cause of preventing..." Here, the perfect infinitive stetisse is used as the subject of uidetur ("it appears"), meaning "it does not appear to have been due to him that he did not [perform]."

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §44.7.45.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:44.7.45.pr

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