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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §45.3.20.pr-45.3.20.1

Acquisitions by Free Men in Good Faith and Hereditary Slaves

Passage 7528 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This passage discusses the acquisition of rights when a free man serving in good faith stipulates for his own slave or another's property, and the proportional acquisition of the sale price of co-owned inherited property stipulated by a grandfather's slave.

[PAULUS libro quinto decimo quaestionum. ] §45.3.20.prLiber homo bona fide mihi seruit: stipulatur ex re mea uel ex operis suis Stichum, qui ipsius est: magis est, ut mihi adquirat, quia et si seruus esset meus, adquireret mihi: nec enim illud dici debet, quasi ille quoque in peculio eius esset.
[PAULUS, from the fifteenth book of Questions.] A free man serves me in good faith: he stipulates, from my property or from his own labor, for Stichus, who belongs to himself. It is more reasonable that he acquires for me, because even if he were my slave, he would acquire for me; for it ought not to be said that he was also in his peculium.
sed si ex re mea Stichum, qui meus est, stipulatur, sibi adquiret.
But if he stipulates from my property for Stichus, who belongs to me, he will acquire for himself.
§45.3.20.1Apud Labeonem ita scriptum est: filium et filiam in sua potestate pater intestatus reliquit: filia eo animo fuit semper, ut existimaret nihil ad se ex hereditate patris pertinere: deinde frater eius filiam procreauit et eam infantem reliquit: tutores seruo auito eius imperauerunt, ut ab eo, cui res aui hereditatis uendiderunt, stipularetur, quanta pecunia ad eum peruenisset: ex ea stipulatione quid pupillae adquisitum sit, peto rescribas.
In the writings of Labeo, it is written as follows: An intestate father left a son and a daughter in his power. The daughter was always of such a mind as to think that nothing from her father's inheritance belonged to her. Then her brother begot a daughter and left her as an infant. The tutors ordered her grandfather's slave to stipulate from the person to whom they sold the things of the grandfather's inheritance, how much money had come to him. I ask you to write back what has been acquired for the ward from this stipulation.
Paulus: est quidem uerum bona fide possessum seruum ex re eius cui seruit stipulantem possessori adquirere: sed si res, quae ex hereditate aui communes fuerunt, in uenditionem hereditatis uenerunt, non uidetur ex re pupillae totum pretium stipulari ideoque utrisque adquirit.
Paulus: It is indeed true that a slave possessed in good faith, stipulating from the property of the person whom he serves, acquires for the possessor; but if the things which were common from the grandfather's inheritance were brought into the sale of the inheritance, the whole price is not deemed to be stipulated from the property of the ward, and therefore he acquires for both.

Notes

  1. §45.3.20.prmagis est, ut — An impersonal expression meaning 'it is more reasonable that' or 'it is more likely that', taking a subjunctive clause introduced by 'ut'.
  2. §45.3.20.prquasi ille quoque in peculio eius esset — The subjunctive imperfect 'esset' with 'quasi' expresses a contrary-to-fact assumption ('as if... was'). Here, 'ille' refers to the slave Stichus owned by the free man, and 'eius' refers to the free man himself. Since a free man cannot legally have a 'peculium', his own slave cannot be regarded as if being in his peculium in relation to the person he serves.
  3. §45.3.20.1peto rescribas — A construction where the conjunction 'ut' is omitted in the subordinate clause serving as the object of 'peto', directly followed by the present subjunctive 'rescribas'.
  4. §45.3.20.1non uidetur ex re pupillae totum pretium stipulari — The infinitive 'stipulari' is used in a passive sense, meaning 'to be stipulated'. Since the sold property was co-owned inherited property (res communes), the whole price cannot be deemed to have been stipulated (or to have arisen) from the ward's sole property (ex re pupillae).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §45.3.20.pr-45.3.20.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:45.3.20.pr-45.3.20.1

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