[IDEM libro uicensimo ad edictum. ] §45.1.72.prStipulationes non diuiduntur earum rerum, quae diuisionem non recipiunt, ueluti uiae itineris actus aquae ductus ceterarumque seruitutium.
[THE SAME, On the Edict, Book 20] Stipulations are not divided in respect of those things which do not admit of division, such as a right of way, a footpath, a driving way, a water conduit, and other servitudes.
idem puto et si quis faciendum aliquid stipulatus sit, ut puta fundum tradi uel fossam fodiri uel insulam fabricari, uel operas uel quid his simile: horum enim diuisio corrumpit stipulationem.
I think the same applies if someone has stipulated for something to be done, as for example, that a tract of land be delivered, a ditch be dug, a building (insula) be constructed, or services, or anything similar to these; for the division of these destroys the stipulation.
§45.1.72.1Celsus tamen libro trigensimo octauo digestorum refert Tuberonem existimasse, ubi quid fieri stipulemur, si non fuerit factum, pecuniam dari oportere ideoque etiam in hoc genere diuidi stipulationem: secundum quem Celsus ait posse dici iusta aestimatione facti dandam esse petitionem.
However, Celsus reports in the thirty-eighth book of his Digests that Tubero thought that where we stipulate for something to be done, if it has not been done, money ought to be paid, and therefore even in this kind of stipulation, it is divided; in accordance with whom Celsus says it can be said that a petition should be given for a just estimation of the act.
§45.1.72.2Si quis ita stipulatus sit: 'si ante kalendas Martias primas opus perfectum non erit, tum quanti id opus erit, tantam pecuniam dari?', diem promissionis cedere non ex quo locatum est opus, sed post kalendas Martias, quia nec conueniri ante kalendas Martias reus promittendi poterat.
If someone has stipulated thus: 'If the work is not completed before the first of March, then is so much money to be paid as that work shall be worth?', the date of the promise begins to run (diem cedere) not from when the work was contracted out, but after the first of March, because the promising debtor could not be sued before the first of March.
§45.1.72.3Plane si 'insulam fulciri' quis stipulatus sit, non est exspectandum, ut insula ruat, sic deinde agi possit: nec 'insulam fieri', ut tantum temporis praetereat, quanto insula fabricari possit: sed ubi iam coepit mora faciendae insulae fieri, tunc agetur diesque obligationi cedit.
Clearly, if someone has stipulated for 'a building to be shored up', one does not have to wait for the building to collapse so that only then can an action be brought; nor, in the case of 'a building to be constructed', for so much time to pass as is required for a building to be built; but as soon as a delay (mora) in constructing the building has begun to occur, then the action will lie, and the date for the obligation begins to run.