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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §9.4.5.pr-9.4.5.1

Co-Owners' Liability and Knowledge for a Shared Slave's Delict

Passage 1586 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Explains the liabilities of co-owners for the delicts of a shared slave depending on their knowledge or ignorance, along with the persistence and non-heritability of a knowledgeable master's liability.

[ULPIANUS libro tertio ad edictum. ] §9.4.5.prSi plurium seruus deliquerit omnibus ignorantibus, noxale iudicium in quemuis dabitur: sed si omnibus scientibus, quiuis eorum tenebitur detracta noxae deditione, quemadmodum si plures deliquissent, nec altero contento alter liberabitur: sed si alter scit, alter ignorauit, qui scit detracta noxae deditione conuenitur, qui nescit, cum noxae deditione.
[ULPIANUS, Book 3 on the Edict] If a slave owned by several persons commits a delict while all of them are ignorant of it, a noxal action will be granted against any one of them; but if all of them were aware, any one of them will be held liable without the clause of noxal surrender, just as if several persons had committed the delict, and the other will not be released by the one having satisfied the claim; but if one knows and the other was ignorant, he who knows is sued without noxal surrender, and he who does not know, with noxal surrender.
§9.4.5.1Differentia autem harum actionum non solum illa est, quod qui scit in solidum tenetur, uerum illa quoque, quod, siue alienauerit seruum qui scit siue manumiserit siue decesserit seruus, dominus tenetur: sed si ipse dominus decesserit, heres eius non tenetur.
The difference, however, between these actions is not only that he who knows is liable for the whole, but also that, whether the master who knows has alienated the slave, or manumitted him, or the slave has died, the master remains liable; but if the master himself has died, his heir is not held liable.

Notes

  1. 9.4.5.praltero contento — 'altero contento' is an ablative absolute. The perfect passive participle contentus (satisfied, here meaning 'the plaintiff being satisfied by a claim against one') modifies the pronoun altero. This reflects the principle of cumulative liability in delicts, meaning that even if the plaintiff is satisfied by suing one of the co-owners, the other is not released.
  2. 9.4.5.prqui nescit, cum noxae deditione — The verb 'conuenitur' (is sued) from the preceding clause is omitted after 'qui nescit' by ellipsis.
  3. 9.4.5.1siue alienauerit seruum qui scit siue manumiserit siue decesserit seruus — A structure where the subject shifts within the conditional clauses. The subject of 'alienauerit' and 'manumiserit' is 'qui scit' (the master who knows), with 'seruum' being its object, whereas the subject of 'decesserit' is 'seruus'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §9.4.5.pr-9.4.5.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:9.4.5.pr-9.4.5.1

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