Page 193 - Latent Defect or Excessive Price?Exploring Early Modern Legal Approach to Remedying Defects in Goods Exchanged for Money - Bruijn

CHAPTER FOUR
a general liability for items which demand extra pre-contractual care from the side of the seller before actually concluding a sale.146
Doneau again fits the intricate Digest text into a framework of obligations inherent in the sales contract. His structure consists of the following building blocks. First of all, the seller has to deliver his merchandise in a manner that the buyer can enjoy its unhampered possession. This boils down to delivering the thing incorruptus, i.e., shielded from eviction, and free from all encumbrances that impede the unhampered possession of the thing.147 Secondly, there are two types of impediments to the buyer's unhampered possession of his purchase: those that hinder the thing's normal use and those that curtail the buyer's right in the thing.
The first kind of impediments is provided for in the aedilician edict.148 The edict states that the seller has to avail the buyer of any defects in the merchandise or must explicitly exonerate himself for it in order to free himself from liability. If he does not, a threefold action is provided for, or better, as Doneau puts it, one action on the sales contract with three possible remedies, i.e., returning the thing, price reduction or compensation for all losses.149 The first two amount to the purchase price at most, whereas the third claim comprises all the buyer's losses. From D. 19.1.13pr. about rotten wooden beams and contaminated cattle it follows, however, that a claim for compensation of all losses is only successful, if a cognizant seller kept silent about defects or if a seller who does not know himself whether the thing is really sound, nevertheless asserts the thing to be so. If the seller did not know about the wood's bad condition, the buyer could claim no more than a price reduction of reimbursement of the purchase price. This framework
146 Cuiacius, Opera, vol. 7, p. 745 D: 'Ad haec notandus est adhuc casus specialis, quo ex diverso ignorans venditor tenetur in id, quod interest, non quanto minoris tantum, puta si ignorans dolia vitiosa, dolia cassa vel pertusa vendiderit, l. sed addes 19. §I. loc.'.\[D. 19.2.19.1\], l. 6, §.sed si vas, hoc tit. \[D. 19.1.6.4\]. Et huius specialis casus ratio haec videtur esse, quoniam intolerabilis et inexcusabilis ignorantia haec est, quia patresfam. solent et debent in doliis servandis, quae vasa figulina erant, omnem adhibere curam et diligentiam, ea, ut auctores rei rusticae loquuntur, picando, id est, pice illinendo, et operculando, et inspiciendo, scrutando saepius, ut vitiorum, si quae forte contraxerint, non possint esse ignari, aut praetendere ignorantiam, eademque eorum cura in aliis vasis figulinis et fragilibus, d. §. sed si vas \[D. 19.1.6.4\], ubi doliis et alia vasa junguntur'.
147 Donellus, Commentarii, vol. 7, book 13, ch. 3, §1, p. 390: 'Tertium caput praestationum huius generis de re vendita est, non solum ut res ita tradatur, quo eam recte habere liceat. Id est ut tradatur incorrupta, & ab omni onere rei ius minuente libera, quoad eius ex bona fide fieri oportet'; Klempt, Grundlagen, p. 22.
148 Donellus, Commentarii, vol. 7, book 13, ch. 3, §2, p. 390: 'Huius generis incommoda sunt quatuor: duo usum impedientia, morbi & vitia rei venditae: duo ius minuentia salvo rei usu, servitutes, & tributa rei imposita. Alia de morbis & vitiis rei venditae venditoris obligatio est, alia de servitutibus & tributis. De morbis & vitiis rerum venditarum cautum est Aedilicio edicto, idque ita receptum est, ut esset de venditionibus rerum tam earum, quae soli sunt, quam quae mobiles aut se moventes, L. I. statim in pr. D. de aed. edict. Itaque ei edictio hic locus est'.
149 Donellus, Commentarii, vol. 7, book 13, ch. 3, §6, p. 392: 'His personis & rebus venditis exceptis, si quis venditor de morbis & vitiis non monuit emptorem, neque de his quidquam excepit, placet eum eo nomine teneri. Idque efficitur aedilicio edicto. Neque interest, sciens quis ea quae aediles praestari iubent, vendiderit, an ignorans. L. I. in pr. §. I. D. de aed. ed. Qua in re non una est obligatio venditoris, sed triplex eo edicto actio adversus eum constituta; vel potius una quidem actio ex empto, sed trium rerum gratia: ad redhibendum, quanto minoris, nonnumquam & quanti emptoris interest rem morbosam aut vitiosam non fuisse'.
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