Page 131 - Latent Defect or Excessive Price?Exploring Early Modern Legal Approach to Remedying Defects in Goods Exchanged for Money - Bruijn
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EARLY MODERN CASTILAN LAW
only receiving back the price paid.
Although the Royal Chancery did not yield and confirmed its earlier judgment230, the
knowledge of the seller about the encumbrances on the land sold seems to open the way for a successful suit for all damages the buyer had suffered. Indeed we encounter other sentences pronounced by the Royal Chancery in which the defendant is condemned to compensate for more than only the shortfall between the price paid and the goods' real value. In the pleito of Hernando de Miranda and Pedro Gutiérrez (1586) about the sale of an orchard of olive trees which turned out to be encumbered with taxes amounting to 55 kilograms of olive oil231, the Royal Chancery confirmed the sentence given in first instance by the alcalde ordinarius of Escalona, a town near Toledo:
'they should return and make restitution of all whatever goods and maravedís which the said Pedro Guttierez | has taken and obtained from Hernando de Miranda together with all | costs and expenditure which appear to have occurred and they contend to have incurred | for not having delivered with sure title and free the said olives'.232
What López was denied, is here granted to Miranda, sc. a condemnation of the seller for all damages which had resulted from the land being encumbered with taxes.
Mirando's case does not appear to be unique. Another clear example of how problems of encumbered land were solved in a similar fashion is provided by the case of Antonio de Mercado, defendant in appeal, against Dio Alvarro, appellant. Here, it was alleged that hereditary lands had been sold as being free from encumbrances by the parents of Mercado, as follows from the writ of execution:
'and selling the said hereditary goods as being free from census and taxes... presently appeared the said hereditary goods with the other goods mentioned above to be vinculated and mortgaged... The said Don Antonio de Mercado as the heir of the said Ruiz de Mercado and Ms Catalina de Mercado was obliged to deliver free and without mortgage the said inheritance of land, free from the said census, and he was obliged to pay his part of the damages and costs which, because of the lands thus being mortgaged to the said census, they had incurred and would incur'.233
230 Pl. civ., F. Alonso (f.), caja 128, 4 (1588), sc. 31 (final judgment).
231 Reg. ej., caja 1595, 2 (1587), sc. 1 (below): 'sobre ellas estaban ynpuestas cinquenta arrobas de aceyte
\[1 arroba = appr. 11 kg. See the entry in the Diccionario de la lengua española of the Real Academia
Española. Online: <http://www.rae.es/recursos/diccionarios/drae>\]'.
232 Reg. ej, caja 1595, 2 (1587), sc. 5 (bottom right), 6 (top left): 'le buelban y rrestiyuan \[sic\] todos y
qualesquier bienes e maravedís quel dicho pedro gutierrez | de cesar el hubiere tomados e llebados al dicho hernando de miranda visto con mas todas | las costas y gastas que parescieren y se aberiguaren aber se les conseguido rreservido | por no le aver salido ciertas y seguras las dichas olivas'. The Royal Chancery's confirmation is on scan 7 (top): 'sin enbargo de las rrazones e manera de a-| grabios contra ella \[sc. the alcalde's judgment\] dichas y allegadas | la debemos confirmar...'.
233 Reg. ej., caja 1606, 42 (1588), sc. 2 (bottom left): 'e bendiendo | las dichas heredades por libres de todo censso e tributo... | al presente parescian las dichas | heredades con otros de los susodichos | estavan obligadas e ypotecadas | ... | el dicho donantonio de | mercado como tal eredero de los dichos Ruiz de Mercado | e doña Catalina de Mercado era obligado a dar libre | e desipotecada la dicha heredad de tierras del dicho censso | e a pagar a su parte los danos e costas que por estar ansi ipote- | cadas al dicho censso se le abian seguido e siguisen',
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