Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §46.3.23.pr

Release of a Debtor Without Their Consent or Knowledge

Passage 7678 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

It is argued that a debtor can be released from an obligation through payment or through a third party's acceptance of legal proceedings on their behalf, regardless of their own will or knowledge.

[POMPONIUS libro uicensimo quarto ad Sabinum. ] §46.3.23.prSolutione uel iudicium pro nobis accipiendo et inuiti et ignorantes liberari possumus.
[POMPONIUS in the twenty-fourth book on Sabinus.] By payment, or by accepting legal proceedings on our behalf, we can be released both against our will and without our knowledge.

Notes

  1. 46.3.23.prsolutione uel ... accipiendo — The singular ablative noun solutione denoting means, and the ablative gerund accipiendo, which also denotes means, are coordinated by the conjunction uel. The phrase iudicium accipere refers to accepting a trial (entering litis contestatio) as a defendant in Roman civil procedure, and pro nobis indicates that a third party does so 'on our behalf' or 'in our stead'.
  2. 46.3.23.pret inuiti et ignorantes — The correlative conjunctions et... et... ('both... and...') connect the predicative adjective inuiti ('against one's will') and the predicative participle ignorantes ('without knowing'), both of which agree with the subject (first-person plural) of the main verb liberari possumus. This highlights that the objective effect of release can occur regardless of the debtor's subjective state.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §46.3.23.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:46.3.23.pr

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