Page 151 - Latent Defect or Excessive Price?Exploring Early Modern Legal Approach to Remedying Defects in Goods Exchanged for Money - Bruijn
P. 151

EARLY MODERN CASTILIAN LAW
similar thing occurs in the pleito between Gonzalo del Río c.s. and Rodríguez about two bought stallions. The witnesses produced by the buyer Rodriguez describe the two stalions' quality not in terms of defects, but in terms of price.
'...you should know that the said Alonso Rodriguez is deceived in regard of the said stallions for half the thing's price because in reality the said stallions are not worth sixteen ducats'.329
Furthermore, we read a buyer stating in a writ of execution about the sale of a mule that he had been 'deceived' for more than half the mule's just price.330 All this matches perfectly with the early modern scholastic emphasis on just price. Despite the fact that medieval ius commune and Castilian statutory law granted remedies for latent defects in these case331, the plaintiffs opt for the remedy for lesion beyond moiety.
Finally, the only cases in which something resembling the remedies for latent defects occurs are about the sale of slaves. Yet, the corresponding writs of execution about bought slaves in bad condition all mention fraud on the seller's side. The seller's fraud is expressed in formulas similar to the one in a writ of execution of 1521 that 'at the time he sold him the female slave he sold and delivered her as being in good health and condition (por sana e buena) which was not the case'.332 Sellers in good faith do not enter the stage.
 | e comun estimacion el | cavallo con las dichas | tachas o qualquiera dellas | no vale trescientos
rreales'.
329 Pl. civiles, F. Alonso (f.), caja 447, 1 (1570) , sc. 28: '...save que el dicho alonso rrodri- | guez fue
enganado con los dichos | machos en la mitad del justo precio | porque rrealmente los dichos machos |
no balian diez y seis ducados'.
330 Reg. ej., caja 1175, 43 (1570), sc. 2 (below left): 'abia sido engañado..... | .... en mas de la mitad del just-
| o precio que podia valer...'.
331 See 2.2.1.1 and 3.3.1.1.
332 Reg. ej., caja 352, 37 (1521), sc. 1: 'en al tiempo que le vendio la dicha esclaba se la | vendio e entrego
por sana e buena e no hera ansy'; reg. ej., caja 360, 49 (1521), sc. 2: 'le avya dado e pagado e negocie- | yendo que la dicha negra hera buena | e sana'; reg. ej., caja 362, 44 (1523), sc. 1: 'e se lo vendio | por trese ducados de oro por sano e bueno e syn enfe- | rmedad alguna'; reg. ej., caja 364, 6 (1523), sc. 2: 'lo bendiera | por sano con ciertas condiciones...'; reg. ej., caja 332, 8 (1518), sc. 3: 'e que no hera fugetivo ni ladro ni borracho'; reg. ej., caja 349, 13 (1521), sc. 2 (top left): 'e por saber el dicho Juan de Beldedo el dicho | biscio antes del tiempo que bendio el dicho esclavo... | ... hera proposito que | ansy el dicho contrato de venta fueyera ninguna' ; similarly, reg. ej., caja 374, 20 (1524); reg. ej., caja 308, 65 (1516); reg. ej., caja 392, 28 (1526); reg. ej., caja 333, 17 (1518); reg. ej., caja 307, 41 (1516); reg. ej., caja 316, 11 (1517); reg. ej., caja 324, 46 (1517); reg. ej., caja 338, 68 (1519).
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