Page 191 - Latent Defect or Excessive Price?Exploring Early Modern Legal Approach to Remedying Defects in Goods Exchanged for Money - Bruijn

CHAPTER FOUR
barrel, Dumoulin writes that the seller's culpa extends to his knowing that when barrel is defective, its content will also perish.138 To the objection that it is impossible to read a professional seller in a text which does not give a clue about the person's qualities, Dumoulin retorts:
'But if someone hair-splittingly prattles that these rules do not consider who sold the barrels or leased them out, but that they speak indistinctly, and that for that reason I should not restrict them to manufacturers or commercial traders who sell or lease out things pertaining to their craft or trade profession, I answer that such an objection is not made by judicious men, but by men uninformed about things, men unfit for law study (as said by Aristotle) or men who like sophists contort the plain meaning of the law, contrary to D. 10.4.19, and who do not recognize what is said with wit. Laws are not to be brought down by sophistry nor should they be interpreted as some fantastic song consisting of only the prescribed words, as an empty shell, but in the light of common sense, accommodated to uses and practices of men and judged by what is equitable in the light of its context \[D. 16.3.31\]'.139
Furthermore, natural equity demands that goods sold or leased out by a professional seller should be fit for the purpose they are to serve on the pain of liability for all loss which results from not ensuring that feat.140 Professio artis obligat, presenting oneself as a professional brings the duty to live up to raised expectations. This rule counts for all professions. 'So you see that legal rules should be interpreted not in a slipshod manner but sanely and congruently', so Dumoulin exhorts his fellow jurists. Dumoulin's theory would last well-into the 19th and 20th century civil codes.141
A different explanation for the puzzling text about the seller's liability or a leaking barrel can be found with Antonius Guibertus Costanus (fl. ca. 1550).142 He chooses an historical
138 Molinaeus, Extricatio, no. 49, fo. 44: 'Tum ea culpa non respicit nudum corpus vel usum vasis, sed periculum liquoris infundendi, scit enim vascularius, vel scire debet fore, ut cum vase (si vitiosum sit) liquor pereat, suaque expresse vel tacita affirmatione secus contrahentem in illud periculum inducit'.
139 Molinaeus, Extricatio, no. 50, fo. 44: 'Quod si quis μικρόλογος causetur ea iura non distinguitur a quo vasa vendantur vel locentur, sed loqui indistincte, quapropter non debere a me restringi ad artificem vel negociatorem qui vendat vel locet spectantia ad artem vel negotiationem suam, respondeo hanc obiectionem non fore hominis cordati, sed rerum imperiti, ad legum studia (teste Aristotele) inepti, vel sophista nuda legum verba captantis, non autem qua mente dicantur animadvertentis, contra l. pe. ad exhib. \[D. 10.4.19\] leges autem non sunt ad sophisticam deducendae, nec tanquam magica quaedam carmina ex solo verborum praescripto, tanquam ex nudo cortice tractandae, sed ex communi sensu usibus et commodis hominum accomodo et ex totius negocii aequitate, l. bona fides, depos. \[D. 16.3.31\]'.
140 Molinaeus, Extricatio, no. 51, p. 44v: '... Etiam utilitas promiscui usus et reip. exigit, ut teneantur si vel ignoranter peccent in arte vel professione sua alios damnificando, quod etiam ipsa naturalis iustitia dictat, praesertim cum haec non soleant emi vel conduci nisi in peristasi et imminenti periculo liquoris amittendi, quod periculum praevidetur et tacite suscipitur a sic vendente vel locante. Et sic non est speciale in vasis, sed idem in omnibus in quibus eadem est ratio. Unde si faber materiarius vendat vel locet tigna tamquam idonea ad fulciendum vel construendum domos, quod est eo ipso quod artem vel negociationem talium tignorum excercet, tenebitur etiam ignorans de detrimento ruinae domus vitio tigni secutae... Vides ergo quod dicta iura non debeant ruditer, sed sane et congrue intelligi'.
141 Dumoulin's interpretation is accepted by Mornac, Observationes, vol. 1, to D. 19.1.6.4, p. 471; De Bruijn, 'Professio artis', p. 7.
142 Little is known about this man. See Donahue jr., 'The Role of the Humanists', pp. 59-60. 181