Page 103 - Latent Defect or Excessive Price?Exploring Early Modern Legal Approach to Remedying Defects in Goods Exchanged for Money - Bruijn

EARLY MODERN CASTILIAN LAW
secular judges to guard over the litigants' souls.122
3.2.2.5 Fairness in exchange and the sale of a defective thing
In section 3.2.2.2 it was observed that Aquinas and the early modern Castilian scholars consider the sale of a defective thing to an ignorant buyer as a breach of fairness in exchange. Early modern Castilian scholars consequently endeavoured to bring ius commune-theory and early modern scholastic views regarding sales of defective goods based on the concept of commutative justice together in one framework. However, the result of this process was that various, sometimes conflicting, ideas about the theoretical underpinning of the required restitution or legal liability emerged.
An example of a scholar who explains the law of obligations in terms of commutative justice with the help of ius commune-concepts of liability was García.123 He terms knowingly selling a defective object illicit.124 García argues that the illicitness lies in the fact that the buyer receives a defective thing, whereas what he wanted to buy was a thing in good condition. Even if the seller charges a reduced price, the buyer still ends up with a defective item he never wished for.125 García seems to interpret knowingly selling a defective thing as fraud. The buyer who has bought a defective object against his wishes can consequently rescind the sale, if he would never have concluded the sale, had he known of the thing's defective condition.126
However, if, notwithstanding the defect, the buyer would have persisted in the sale, García considers the sale partially involuntary. The buyer can claim that the seller indemnify the damages he suffered because of the defect, but not rescission of the contract. As an example, García provides a shoemaker who knowingly delivers a pair of shoes of which the one shoe is of good quality leather but the other is not. The buyer can only demand a price reduction or compensation for the bad shoe but cannot rescind the entire contract. Only the part with regard to which the buyer erred can be adjusted. Here,
122 Azevedo, Commentarii, to Nueva Recopilación 5.11.1, no. 8, p. 343: 'naturaliter enim homines non ad bonum sed ad malum proni sunt... Et ideo legislatores in praesenti et similibus iuribus id permisisse dum tamen non sit ultra dimidium, ne commercia et contractus cessarent et tota machina contrahentium destrueretur et quia... judices temporales non curant de periculo animarum...'.There were, however, dissenting views. Azpilcueta held that eclessiastical courts should grant relief even if the lesion is below moiety (Decock, Theologians, p. 548-549). For the forum internum, Jean Gerson (1363-1429) was of the opinion that a lesion below moiety only gave rise to a duty to confess, not to make restitution (Decock, Theologians, p. 534).
123 García, Tratado, vol. 1, prologo, n.p.: 'Doctrina es de Aristoteles (christiano Lector) en el quinto libro de las Ethicas capitulo quinto, que el uso de las commutaciones y contractos tuvo origino y principio de la falta que en sus casas y Republicas padecen los hombros...Y tuvo por cierto muy grande razon'; ibidem, n.p. \[end\]: 'Este es en summa (amigo lector) lo que en esta obra havemos trabajado de hazer, con desseo de servir en algo a su divina Magestad, aprovechando a mis proximos y encaminandolos en sus tratos y negocios, por que los hagan con la rectitud y justicia que se requiere, y sin offensa de Dios'.
124 García, Tratado, vol. 1, ch. 13, pp. 368, 382, 390: \[382\] 'quando de proposito se vende una cosa viciosa a otro la vendicion si tiene por illicita'.
125 García, Tratado, vol. 1, ch. 13, p. 390: 'Por donde aunque el precio se disminuyesse segun requería el valor de la cosa vendida, no por esso dexaría de ser la vendición illicita'; ibidem, p. 394: 'Quando el engaño huviesse dado causa al contracto, entonces se ha de hazer la restitución y reparar el engaño con deshazer el contracto, tornando el precio al comprador y la cosa comprada al vendedor.
126 García, Tratado, vol. 1, ch. 13, p. 395: 'si al principio lo supiera nunca comprara la dicha cosa'. 91