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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §45.1.43.pr

Stipulations Subject to Third-Party Decisions and Delay

Passage 7390 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

In a stipulation subject to a third party's decision, if the stipulator himself hinders that decision, the promisor is not held liable. If the designated arbiter causes a delay, the view that the specified person cannot be substituted is preferred.

[ULPIANUS libro quinquagensimo ad Sabinum. ] §45.1.43.prSi quis arbitratu puta Lucii Titii restitui sibi stipulatus est, deinde ipse stipulator moram fecerit, quo minus arbitretur Titius: promissor quasi moram fecerit, non tenetur.
[ULPIANUS, in the fiftieth book on Sabinus.] If anyone has stipulated that [something] be restored to him, say, by the decision of Lucius Titius, and then the stipulator himself has caused a delay to prevent Titius from making the decision, the promisor is not bound as if he had caused a delay.
quid ergo si ipse, qui arbitrari debuit, moram fecerit? magis probandum est a persona non esse recedendum eius, cuius arbitrium insertum est.
What then if he himself who ought to have made the decision has caused a delay? We should rather approve the view that one must not depart from the person of him whose decision was inserted.

Notes

  1. §45.1.43.prputa — Historically the present imperative singular of putare ('think', 'suppose'), but here functioning parenthetically as an adverb meaning 'for instance, say'.
  2. §45.1.43.prquo minus arbitretur — quo minus introduces a subjunctive clause (arbitretur is the present subjunctive of the deponent verb arbitror) dependent on the expression of prevention/hindrance (moram fecerit), meaning 'so as to prevent Titius from deciding'.
  3. §45.1.43.pra persona non esse recedendum eius — non esse recedendum is an impersonal passive periphrastic construction (gerundive of recedere + esse), expressing necessity ('one must not depart'). eius is the genitive modifying persona, acting as the antecedent to the relative clause introduced by cuius.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §45.1.43.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:45.1.43.pr

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