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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §47.2.49.pr-47.2.49.1

Parties with an Interest Barred from the Theft Action

Passage 7910 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Gaius discusses cases where a party with an interest in a thing's safety cannot bring an action for theft, citing a creditor when an unpledged asset of the debtor is stolen, and a wife when dotal property at her risk is stolen (where the right to sue belongs to the husband).

[GAIUS libro decimo ad edictum prouinciale. ] §47.2.49.prInterdum accidit, ut non habeat furti actionem is, cuius interest rem saluam esse.
[GAIUS in his tenth book on the provincial edict.] It sometimes happens that a person who has an interest in a thing being safe does not have an action for theft.
ut ecce creditor ob rem debitoris subreptam furti agere non potest, etsi aliunde creditum seruare non possit: loquimur autem scilicet de ea re, quae pignoris iure obligata non sit.
For instance, a creditor cannot bring an action for theft on account of a debtor's thing having been stolen, even if he cannot secure his debt from any other source; we are speaking, of course, of a thing that is not bound by the right of pledge.
§47.2.49.1Item rei dotalis nomine, quae periculo mulieris est, non mulier furti actionem habet, sed maritus.
Likewise, in the case of dotal property which is at the risk of the wife, it is not the wife who has the action for theft, but the husband.

Notes

  1. §47.2.49.prcuius interest rem saluam esse — The impersonal verb "interest" takes the genitive of the person concerned ("cuius") and an accusative with infinitive clause ("rem saluam esse") representing the object of interest.
  2. §47.2.49.prob rem debitoris subreptam — The preposition "ob" governs the accusative "rem". The past participle "subreptam" agrees with "rem" to form a dominant participle construction (similar to "ab urbe condita"), meaning "on account of the theft of the thing" rather than simply "on account of the stolen thing."
  3. §47.2.49.1periculo mulieris est — "periculo" is an ablative of quality or circumstance, meaning "is at the risk of the wife." This indicates that the economic risk of loss or damage to the dotal property is borne by the wife.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §47.2.49.pr-47.2.49.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:47.2.49.pr-47.2.49.1

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