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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §5.1.75.pr

Review of Praetorian Default Judgments and Exceptions

Passage 956 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The jurists discuss whether a judge in execution proceedings can review a praetor's default judgment, concluding that while generally disallowed, exceptions should be made in cases of plaintiff fraud or defendant's unavoidable absence.

[IDEM libro trigesimo sexto digestorum. ] §5.1.75.prSi praetor iusserit eum a quo debitum petebatur adesse et ordine edictorum peracto pronuntiauerit absentem debere, non utique iudex, qui de iudicato cognoscit, debet de praetoris sententia cognoscere: alioquin lusoria erunt huiusmodi edicta et decreta praetorum.
[THE SAME, in the Thirty-Sixth Book of the Digests.] If the praetor has ordered the person from whom a debt was claimed to appear and, the order of edicts having been completed, has pronounced that the absent person is liable, the judge who takes cognizance of the judgment ought not by any means to review the praetor’s decision; otherwise, edicts and decrees of the praetors of this kind will be rendered illusory.
MARCELLUS notat: si per dolum sciens falso aliquid allegauit et hoc modo consecutum eum sententiam praetoris liquido fuerit adprobatum, existimo debere iudicem querellam rei admittere.
MARCELLUS notes: if a person, knowingly and through fraud, has alleged something false, and it has been clearly proved that he obtained the praetor’s decision in this manner, I think the judge ought to admit the complaint of the defendant.
PAULUS notat: si autem morbo impeditus aut rei publicae causa auocatus adesse non potuit reus, puto uel actionem iudicati eo casu in eum denegandam uel exsequi praetorem ita iudicatum non debere.
PAULUS notes: but if the defendant was unable to appear because he was prevented by illness or called away on public service, I think that in that case either the action on the judgment should be denied against him, or the praetor ought not to execute a judgment thus rendered.

Notes

  1. §5.1.75.prnon utique — Although "non utique" can mean "not necessarily" (partial negation), here it indicates a strong prohibition or absolute negation ("by no means" / "not at all") to protect the authority of the praetor's decree.
  2. §5.1.75.prconsecutum eum sententiam — An accusative with infinitive clause using the perfect participle of the deponent verb consequor (consecutum [esse]), where eum is the subject and sententiam is the object. The entire clause serves as the subject of the impersonal passive adprobatum fuerit ("it has been proved").

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §5.1.75.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:5.1.75.pr

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