Page 127 - Latent Defect or Excessive Price?Exploring Early Modern Legal Approach to Remedying Defects in Goods Exchanged for Money - Bruijn

EARLY MODERN CASTILAN LAW
The Gloss has the same commentary. See in the same place the learned doctors and better than all others Fulgosius. Moreover, see the Gloss to D. 18.1.59216'.217
However, a closer look on the text D. 21.1.61 reveals that it is silent about the seller's knowledge. Yet, Gómez and also Piñel choose to read an unknowing seller in it. The latter also reads D. 21.2.75 as a text which holds a seller liable for servitudes he had not expilictly warranted to be absent. This goes against the grain of the text. Yet, it fits nicely in the Castilian current to streamline the liability for latent defects with that for encumbrances in immovables.218
'One should also know that nowadays a certain recent provision of the Partidas seems to correct this. Even more so, if a seller is aware of the servitude, the buyer can rescind the contract and sue to be absolved from paying the price and to receive compensation for all damages he incurred on the grounds of being evicted because of the servitude. If he \[the seller, NdB\] was ignorant, the buyer can likewise sue for the contract's rescission, but not for whichever damage or interest. This is explicitly decreed in provision 5.5.63 of the Partidas. I consider this law peculiar in this matter and above all I understand the law as dealing with the situation in which the buyer wants to sue for rescission of the contract. It is different, if he wants to have and keep the thing. Then he \[can\] also sue for damages on the grounds of being evicted because of the servitude, in the event the seller knowingly sold with a servitude. Alternatively, he can sue for price reduction, when the seller ignorantly sold the thing. In such a way, I believe, the buyer can sue according to civil law and that is how it should be understood and so it is that the remedies are at the buyer's disposal, see D. 4.3.7pr. and D. 19.1.13.27 and thus I decided in a case over which I had to preside'.219
216 For these glosses and Fulgosius see 2.2.4.
217 Gómez, Variae resolutiones, lib. 2, cap. 2, nos. 45ff., p. 234: 'Secundo limita et intellige, nisi \[sic, D.
19.1.1.1 has si\] venditor sciret fundum debere servitutem et tacuit et emptorem de ea non certioravit, quia tunc tenetur actione ex empto ad interesse, licet non ad duplam, text est not. in l. 1, §1, ff. de action. empt. Si vero venditor ignorabat, tunc non agit emptor de evictione ad totale interesse, sed tantum poterit agere quanto minoris esset empturus, si sciret \[i.e. the buyer\] servitutem impositam text est in l. quotiens, ff, de aedil. edict. Cuius verba sunt: Quotiens de servitute agitur, victus tantum debet praestare quanto minoris emisset emptor, si sciret hanc servitutem impositam ... et ibi commun. Dd. et in expresso istam doctrinam et solutionem tenet Azo in summa, C. de eviction. tenet etiam glos. ordin. in l. pen. eod. tit. et ibi communiter Dd. et melius quam alius ibi Fulgos. glos. etiam ordin. in l. cum venderes, ff. contrahen. emption...'.
218 Pinelus, Ad rubricam, to C. 4.44.2, c. 1, no. 9, p. 155: 'quia cessante dolo venditoris, si ulla imminutio reperiatur in re, non rescinditur contractus, sed tantum datur actio quanto minoris, l. quotiens, 61, ff. de edilic. edic. \[D. 21.1.61\]... in specie autem exemplum assignabitur ex l. quod ad servitutes, 75, ff. de evict. \[D. 21.2.75\], quando res patitur aliquam servitutem'.
219 Gómez, Variae resolutiones, lib. 2, cap. 2, nos. 45ff., p. 234: 'Advertendum tamen quod hodie videtur quaedam nova lex part. hoc corrigere: imo quod si venditor fuerit sciens, possit emptor ratione servitutis evictae rescindere contractum et petere pretium solutum et damnum et interesse quod ex hoc praetendit. Si vero fuerit ignorans \[i.e. venditor\], similiter possit emptor agere ad rescissionem contractus, sed non ad aliquod damnum, vel interesse, ita expresse disponit lex 63. tit. 5. 5. part. Quam reputo sing. in materia et eam notabiliter intelligo emptore volente agere ad rescissionem contractus. Secus vero si velit habere et retinere rem et agere tantum ad interesse servitutis evictae, eo casu, quo scienter fuit vendita, vel quanto minoris, quando ignoranter esset vendita, quia tunc crederem ius commune posse procedere et debere intelligi et sic ista remedia esse in electione emptoris, arg. text. iuncta gl. et est communis opinio in l. et eleganter, ff. de dolo malo et in l. Julianus, § si quis colludente, ff. de action. empt. et ita iudicavi in causa mihi commissa'.
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