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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §9.4.36.pr

Liability for Buying Pledged or Defectively Acquired Slaves

Passage 1617 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

A buyer of a pledged slave from a debtor is liable for theft once ownership is acquired, even if the slave may later be recovered. The same applies to buyers from minors or those acting in fraud of creditors; they remain subject to suit in the meantime.

[IDEM libro trigensimo septimo ad edictum. ] §9.4.36.prSi quia seruum pigneratum, deinde a debitore subreptum emerit a debitore, nomine eius furti tenebitur dominio serui adquisito, nec oberit, quod Seruiana potest ei homo auocari.
[THE SAME, on the Edict, Book XXXVII.] If someone buys from a debtor a slave who has been pledged and then stolen by the debtor, he will be held liable on account of that theft, once the ownership of the slave has been acquired; and it will not stand in his way that the slave can be recovered from him by the actio Serviana.
idemque et si a minore quis uiginti quinque annis emerit uel in fraudem creditorum sciens: hi enim, quamuis auferri eis dominium possit, interim tamen conueniendi sunt.
The same applies also if someone buys from a person under twenty-five years of age, or knowingly in fraud of creditors; for these persons, although ownership can be taken away from them, must nevertheless in the meantime be sued.

Notes

  1. §9.4.36.prSi quia — The word 'quia' in the manuscripts is commonly emended to 'quis' ("someone"). If kept as 'quia' ("because"), it would introduce a causal clause, but one would still need to supply a subject for the verb 'emerit'.
  2. §9.4.36.prdominio serui adquisito — Ablative absolute construction (noun 'dominio' + past participle 'adquisito'), expressing a condition or cause ("once the ownership of the slave has been acquired").
  3. §9.4.36.prSeruiana — The feminine noun 'actio' is implied (actio Serviana). It refers to the Servian action, a real action by which a pledgee could recover possession of the pledged property from any possessor, including third-party buyers.
  4. §9.4.36.prei — Dative of separation with the verb 'auocari' ("to be taken away"), meaning "from him" (the buyer).
  5. §9.4.36.prsciens — Present participle in the nominative case, functioning predicatively to modify the subject 'quis' (the buyer), meaning "knowingly" or "with knowledge (that it is in fraud of creditors)".

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §9.4.36.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:9.4.36.pr

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