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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §9.2.47.pr

Plea of Fraud Against Double Recovery After a Slave's Death

Passage 1564 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

If a slave dies after damages for his wounding have been assessed in a prior action, and the owner sues for the killing, the owner is limited by a plea of fraud to prevent him from recovering more than if he had sued for the killing initially.

[IULIANUS libro octagensimo sexto digestorum. ] §9.2.47.prSed si priore iudicio aestimatione facta, postea mortuo servo, de occiso agere dominus instituerit, exceptione doli mali opposita compelletur, ut ex utroque iudicio nihil amplius consequatur, quam consequi deberet, si initio de occiso homine egisset.
[JULIANUS, in the eighty-sixth book of the Digests.] But if, after an assessment of damages has been made in the prior action, and the slave has subsequently died, the owner should undertake to sue for the killing, he will, upon the interposition of a plea of fraud, be compelled to the end that he may obtain nothing more from both actions than he ought to obtain if he had sued for the killed man at the very beginning.

Notes

  1. §9.2.47.praestimatione facta — Ablative absolute phrase consisting of the noun aestimatio and the participle facta, meaning 'after an assessment of damages has been made', referring to the completion of the valuation in the prior proceeding.
  2. §9.2.47.prexceptione doli mali opposita — Ablative absolute (or ablative of means), meaning 'upon the interposition of a plea of fraud (exceptio doli mali)', which is the defendant's procedural defense to prevent the plaintiff from obtaining double recovery.
  3. §9.2.47.prconsequi deberet, si initio de occiso homine egisset — A mixed conditional sentence, where the si-clause (egisset) is a past contrafactual (subjunctive pluperfect) and the apodosis (deberet) expresses a past obligation or a state of what ought to have been in the subjunctive imperfect.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §9.2.47.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:9.2.47.pr

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