Page 231 - Latent Defect or Excessive Price?Exploring Early Modern Legal Approach to Remedying Defects in Goods Exchanged for Money - Bruijn

CHAPTER FIVE
Could it be that Vinnius uncritically followed Doneau, who had dismissed the subjective estimation?78 After all, Vinnius' treatise is not much more than an abridged version of the latter's Commentarius.79
Voet's treatment of the matter is similarly opaque. By using the formulae 'res fuit' and 'res valere', Voet also fails to inform us about their practical meaning. However, Voet's discussion of oath-taking is revealing. We have seen that one objection against taking the subjective price as yardstick was that in order to do so, the buyer had to take an oath in court against the seller who, when an aedilician remedy was brought, was not necessarily in bad faith. Mudaeus and Viglius had theorized that taking an oath to the detriment of someone who had not acted in bad faith is unacceptable. 80 Voet too seems to acknowledge the same when he says that under circumstances an oath can be taken, but
'Not so in cases about returning or producing things, but only when one deals with the handing over of the thing, or when the oath is only about the amount of damages, as occurs in the action on the sales contract'81
In his Compendium Voet adds:
'Custom. Today, an oath in court based on affection barely prevails and if a thing cannot be restored by the strong arm of the state when the possessor in bad faith had unexpectedly died, judges are most of the time inclined to estimate and determine the party's full loss by themselves in accordance with fairness and equity'.82
Voet's main objection against a price estimation based on one's personal feelings was that such subjective pricing changed with the wind, a sentiment already expressed in early modern Castilian scholarship.83 The most suitable method to assess the price therefore was to ground it in the item's quality and quantity, no matter what terminology was to be found in the various Corpus iuris civilis'-texts.84 The Frisian Ulrik Huber also contends that
78 Similarly, Voet, Commentarius, to D. 21.1, no. 5, p. 745: Quanti minoris actio... datur contra venditorem praecipue ob defectum quem si scivisset tanti non fuisset emturus; ad id, ut restituatur ex pretio quanti minoris valet res, l. quoties 61 ff. h.t.'.
79 Cf. section 5.2.1.3 where passages of Vinnius and Doneau are juxtaposed. The same question applies to Gudelinus, who likewise appies the 'objective' phraseology to both aedilician and civil remedies: 'tenetur enim venditor ob morbos vitiaque rei venditae... ut res redhibeatur, aut reddatur tantum ex pretio, quanto minoris res ideo valet, l. 1, et l. sciendum ff. de aedilit. edict., \[D. 21.1.1 and D. 21.1.19\], l. Julianus, in princ. ff. de act. empt. \[D. 19.1.13pr.\]'. Gudelinus, Commentariorum, 3.7, p. 108.
80 See 4.2.1.2.1.
81 Voet, Commentarius, to D. 12.3, no. 5, p. 515: 'Non item in iis quibus non de restituendo vel exhibendo,
sed tantum de tradendo agitur, vel de sola indemnitate, quod evenit in emti actione...'.
82 Voet, Compendium juris, to D. 12.3, no. 6, p. 159: 'Moribus. Iusiurandum in litem affectionis hodie vix obtinet et si res restituenda manu militari auferri nequeat, dum forte dolo possessoris periit, solent
plerumque Iudices id quod interest ex bono et aequo ipsi aestimare ac statuere'.
83 See 3.2.2.3.
84 Voet, Commentarius, to D. 18.5, no. 7, p. 462: 'in dies pro variante hominum opinione, rerumque penuria
vel abundantia, aliique circumstantiis, pretia crescunt ac minuuntur, l. pretia rerum, 63, §. ult., ad leg. Falc. \[D. 35.2.63\]... Pretium autem an iustum an iniustum sit, ex qualitate rei, ac redituum quantitate, aestimandum est, l. si quos, 16, C. h.t. \[C. 4.49.16\], l. pen. ff. de reb. eorum, qui sub tut., vel cura sunt, etc. \[D. 27.9.13\]'; Brom, Urteilsbegründungen, p. 241; Westenberg shows the same disregard for precise quotation: '...quanti minoris res ob vitium cum venderetur fuit, l. 18. pr., l. 61 \[D. 21.1.18pr., D. 21.1.61\]', Westenberg, Principia, to D. 21.1, no. 51, p. 414. Nevertheless, of the Digest texts quoted by
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