Latin

Lines 1.758-1.762

Roman Law and Society, The Institutes of Justinian 1.758-762

Not analysed yet

It is evident that as a person is liable under the first head, if by wilful injury or by his fault he kills a slave or a four-footed beast, so by this head a person is liable for every other damage if there is wrongful injury or fault in what he does. But in this case the offender is bound to pay the greatest value the thing has possessed, not within the year next preceding, but the thirty days next preceding.
Even the word plurimi, i. e. ,of the greatest value, is not expressed in this case. But Sabinus was rightly of opinion that the estimation ought to be made as if this word was in the law, since it must have been that the plebeians, who were the authors of this law on the motion of the tribune Aquilius, thought it sufficient to have used the word in the first head of the law.
But the direct actio under this law cannot be brought if anyone has, with his own body, done damage, and consequently utiles actiones are given against the person who does damage in any other way, as, for instance, a utilis actio is given against one who shuts up a slave or a beast, so as to produce death by hunger; who drives a horse so fast as to knock him to pieces, or drives cattle over a precipice, or persuades another man's slave to climb a tree, or go down in a well, and the slave in climbing or descending is killed or maimed. But if any one has flung the slave of another from a bridge or a bank into a river, and the slave is drowned, then, as he has actually flung him down, there can be no difficulty in deciding that he has caused the damage with his own body, and consequently he is directly liable under the lex Aquilia. But if no damage has been done by the body, nor to the body, but damage has been done in some other way, the actio directa and the actio utilis are both inapplicable, and an actio in factum is given against the wrongdoer; for instance, if any one through compassion has loosed the fetters of a slave, to enable him to escape.

Latin

Lines 1.758-1.762

Roman Law and Society, The Institutes of Justinian 1.758-762

Not analysed yet

It is evident that as a person is liable under the first head, if by wilful injury or by his fault he kills a slave or a four-footed beast, so by this head a person is liable for every other damage if there is wrongful injury or fault in what he does. But in this case the offender is bound to pay the greatest value the thing has possessed, not within the year next preceding, but the thirty days next preceding.
Even the word plurimi, i. e. ,of the greatest value, is not expressed in this case. But Sabinus was rightly of opinion that the estimation ought to be made as if this word was in the law, since it must have been that the plebeians, who were the authors of this law on the motion of the tribune Aquilius, thought it sufficient to have used the word in the first head of the law.
But the direct actio under this law cannot be brought if anyone has, with his own body, done damage, and consequently utiles actiones are given against the person who does damage in any other way, as, for instance, a utilis actio is given against one who shuts up a slave or a beast, so as to produce death by hunger; who drives a horse so fast as to knock him to pieces, or drives cattle over a precipice, or persuades another man's slave to climb a tree, or go down in a well, and the slave in climbing or descending is killed or maimed. But if any one has flung the slave of another from a bridge or a bank into a river, and the slave is drowned, then, as he has actually flung him down, there can be no difficulty in deciding that he has caused the damage with his own body, and consequently he is directly liable under the lex Aquilia. But if no damage has been done by the body, nor to the body, but damage has been done in some other way, the actio directa and the actio utilis are both inapplicable, and an actio in factum is given against the wrongdoer; for instance, if any one through compassion has loosed the fetters of a slave, to enable him to escape.