Page 146 - Latent Defect or Excessive Price?Exploring Early Modern Legal Approach to Remedying Defects in Goods Exchanged for Money - Bruijn

CHAPTER THREE
Siete Partidas are not explicit on that point, Azevedo in his comments to the Nueva Recopilación plainly states that the remedy can be brought in the event movables are sold.304 Piñel argues that the kind of object sold is irrelevant, since C. 4.44.2 provides a principle to which all contracts should answer,305 again providing an example of how deductive reasoning started to bear on the interpretation of the Corpus iuris civilis.
3.4.4.1 Legal practice
Various cases brought before and writs of execution issued by the Royal Chancery demonstrate that the remedy for lesion beyond moiety was likewise applied to lease as it was to sales.306 One writ of execution has it more clearly than any treatise on the issue can explain. The object of the lessee's discontent were lands which appeared to be of such dubious quality that 'even if all labour and diligence in the world were put into it, they would or could not produce more than eight hanegas307 of meal'.
'it was thus that in the said lease his party had been deceived for more than half the just price, because the said lands were all full of sand and poor and inconstant so that in reality, even if all labour and diligence in the world were put into it, they would or could not produce more than eight hanegas of meal or even only seven, because of the bad quality of the lands'.308
Other writs too indicate that the remedy for lesion beyond moiety is without any qualms applied to lease.309
medieval ius commune. Padilla y Meneses, In quaedam, to C. 4.44.2, no. 12, fo. 73v.
304 Azevedo, Commentarii, gloss de la cosa to Nueva Recopilación 5.11.1, no. 1, p. 343: 'Sive sit mobilis, semovens aut immobilis, sive incorporalis, ut jura et actiones, nam rei appellatione omnia haec
comprehendentur... '.
305 Pinelus, Ad rubricam, to C. 4.44.2, 2, 2.17, pp. 286-287: \[about extension to movables\] 'quod quidem
indubitabile mihi videtur ex generalitate huius l. \[C. 4.44.2\] et ex aequitate in qua fundatur'.
306 Reg., ej., caja 1072, 24 (1564), fo. 1.
307 A Castilian measure amounting to 55,5 liters. See entry 'fanega' in the Spanish Royal Academia's
Diccionario de la lengua española. Online: <http://www.rae.es/recursos/diccionarios/drae>.
308 Reg, ej., caja 1072, 24 (1564), sc. 1:'hera asi que en el dicho arendamiento su parte abia sido enganado en | mas de la mitad del justo precio por que las dichas tierras heran todas harenosas e | tan flacas e libiamas que realmente y con efeto que aunque le hiziese en las todo labor | e diligencia del mundo no llebaban ni podrian llebar ocho hanegas de \[deleted word\] pan ni aun | siete por la maltad de las dichas
tierras'.
309 Reg, ej., caja 837, 27 (1555), sc. 2 (top left): 'y hera ansi que | en los dichos arrendamientos y en los
hazer en la forma | y manera y por el precio que los avia hecho y arrendado | la dicha dehesa avia sido y hera ynorme e aun | ynormissimamente enganado y en mucho mas de la | mitad del just prezio'; similarly, reg, ej., caja 835, 69 (1555); reg, ej., caja 850, 8 (1555).
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