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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §46.3.16.pr

Retroactive Effect of Conditional Release or Payment

Passage 7671 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section explains, based on the opinion of Aristo, that when a release or payment is made under a condition, the effect of release occurs retroactively upon the fulfillment of that condition.

[POMPONIUS libro quinto decimo ad Sabinum. ] §46.3.16.prSub condicione debitori si acceptum feratur, postea condicione existente intellegitur iam olim liberatus.
[POMPONIUS libro quinto decimo ad Sabinum.] If a release is granted to a debtor under a condition, when the condition subsequently occurs, he is understood to have been released already from the beginning.
et hoc etiam si solutio re fiat, accidere Aristo dicebat.
And Aristo used to say that this also happens even if payment is made in reality.
scripsit enim, si quis, qui sub condicione pecuniam promisit, dedit eam ea condicione, ut, si condicio exstitisset, in solutum cederet, existente condicione liberari eum nec obstare, quod ante eius pecunia facta est.
For he wrote that if anyone who promised money under a condition gave it on the condition that, if the condition should occur, it should go towards payment, then when the condition occurs, he is released, and it is no obstacle that the money had previously become the property of the creditor.

Notes

  1. §46.3.16.pracceptum feratur — The phrase acceptum ferre literally means "to enter as received" in bookkeeping, and in legal terms, refers to the formal release of a debt (acceptilatio).
  2. §46.3.16.preius pecunia facta est — eius is a genitive of possession referring to the creditor (pecunia facta est eius means "the money became his [the creditor's] property"). The point is that even if the ownership of the money had already transferred to the creditor before the fulfillment of the condition, this does not prevent the debtor's release upon its fulfillment.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §46.3.16.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:46.3.16.pr

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