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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §50.17.126.pr-50.17.126.2

Payment of Price and Possessor's Preference in Gain

Passage 9186 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This chunk presents legal maxims by Ulpian, stating that paying a price rules out being a plunderer, that acquiring a freedman does not increase pecuniary wealth, and that the possessor is favored in a dispute over mutual gain.

[ULPIANUS libro quinto decimo ad edictum. ] §50.17.126.prNemo praedo est, qui pretium numerauit.
[ULPIANUS, in the fifteenth book on the edict.] No one is a plunderer who has paid the price.
§50.17.126.1Locupletior non est factus, qui libertum adquisierit.
He who has acquired a freedman has not been made richer.
§50.17.126.2Cum de lucro duorum quaeratur, melior est causa possidentis.
When a question arises concerning the gain of two persons, the position of the one in possession is the better.

Notes

  1. §50.17.126.prpraedo — Meaning 'plunderer' or 'wrongful possessor.' It indicates the legal principle that someone who has paid a price (pretium numeravit) in good faith is not classified as a malicious possessor (praedo), even if the transferor lacked the authority to sell.
  2. §50.17.126.1qui libertum adquisierit — The verb 'adquisierit' in the relative clause is in the perfect subjunctive (or future perfect indicative), expressing a conditional nuance. Acquiring a freedman (gaining the rights of patronage over a manumitted slave) brings status and respect but is not legally deemed to increase one's pecuniary wealth (locupletior).
  3. §50.17.126.2de lucro duorum quaeratur — The verb 'quaeratur' is in the present subjunctive of the impersonal passive. In a dispute where both parties are competing for a gain (lucrum)—as opposed to one party trying to avoid a loss and the other seeking a gain—the legal position of the one currently holding the object (possidentis) is favored.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §50.17.126.pr-50.17.126.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:50.17.126.pr-50.17.126.2

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