Page 350 - Latent Defect or Excessive Price?Exploring Early Modern Legal Approach to Remedying Defects in Goods Exchanged for Money - Bruijn

CODES OF CIVIL LAW
constitutes non- or mal-performance.50
All this is at odds with the usus modernus-view about sale, because, first, usus
modernus-doctrine held that the duty to deliver free from defects was not required in order to rightly execute a contract. As long as the purchased item was delivered, the seller had fulfilled his contractual obligations. The aedilician remedies only served to mitigate loss caused by particular defects in the properly delivered thing.51 The ALR's drafter Klein, however, reasons from the idea that fulfilling a sales contract automatically implies that the seller delivers free from defects:
'Aus einem gültigen Kaufvertrage entsteht auf der Seite des Verkäufers die Pflicht, die verkaufte Sache nebst zubehör in dem bedungenen oder stillschweigend vorausgesetzten Zustande, fehlerfrei dem Käufer zu übergeben'.52
Secondly, usus modernus-doctrine did not consider the remedies for defects, third- party claims and encumbrances as part of one and the same duty of Gewährleistung. A case in point is Thibaut's discussion of the concept of the ALR in his System des Pandekten-Rechts. He still distinguishes between particular rules for safeguarding against eviction and safeguarding against latent defects. The former rules he applies to all onerous contracts, whereas the latter he limits to onerous contracts in which property is transferred.53
The ALR, however, brings all together under the same heading. It goes even further in that it extends safeguarding duties to all contracts in which both parties have to perform.54 So one can read that a leaseholder is able to sue the lessor for not having
50 I, V, § 317: Auch die Leistung der Gewähr gehört zur Erfüllung eines Vertrags.
51 Lauterbach, Collegium, vol. 2, to D. 21.1, no. 9, p. 158:'Cum itaque bonae fidei contrarium esset, si emptor cogeretur retinere rem vitio affectam'; Hahn, Observata, vol. 2, to D. 21.1, no. II, p. 37: 'causa introductionis... ne morbosum mancipium aut vitiosum pro sano, aut malam mercem pro bona emant'; differently, Klempt, Grundlagen, p. 66. However, the usus modernus-scholars Klempt produces of whom he contends that they consider delivery free from defects a duty arising from the sales contract are not
unambiguous concerning that matter. For instance, Lauterbach seems inclined to see the aedilician remedies as additional protection on top of the contractual remedy. Such a need can only arise, if the action on the contract does not entail a duty to deliver free from defects. Therefore, Klempt's reference to Lauterbach's Collegium, to D. 19.1, no. 11, p. 1322 to illustrate that usus modernus-scholars believed that absence of defects was a prerequisite for a valid sales contract is not to the point. Lauterbach even mentions that remedies on the contract are only given for concealed defects, which concealment is against the bona fides. Lauterbach, Collegium, vol. 1, to D. 19.1, no. 12, p. 1322: 'Ob vitia enim, quae... celata sunt, datur actio redhibitoria, aestimatoria, sive quanti minoris, et hodie etiam actio ex empto'.
52 Klein, System, 1, § 248, p. 277; Klein, System, 1, § 259, p. 281: 'Der Verkäufer muss dem Käufer die Sache so gewähren, dass dieser dieselbe bedungenermassen als sein Eigenthum besitzen nutzen und darüber verfügen kann. In Beziehung auf die Verpflichtung zur Gewährleistung finden die allgemeinen Grundsätzen (Lehrbuch. §. 115sqq.), so weit sie nicht nachstehend abgeändert oder modificirt worden sind, Anwendung'.
53 Thibaut, System, I, § 178, p. 135 (eviction): 'Diese Pflicht das übertragene Recht zu gewähren (obligatio ad evictionem praestandam), findet nicht bloss bey Geschäften statt, welche das Eigenthum einer Sache, sondern auch bey denen, welche andre dingliche oder persönliche Rechte übertragen'; idem, §190, p. 143 (latent defects): '...dies ward in der Folge auf all das Eigenthum nicht unentgeltlich übertragenden, nicht aber auf andere Geschäfte ausgedehnt'.
54 I, XXI, §§ 623 and 624 ALR.
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