2 In order to support this action it is not necessary that the goods
of which robbery has been committed should belong to the plaintiff,
provided they were taken from among his property. Thus, if a thing be
let, or lent, or pledged to Titius, or even deposited with him under
such circumstances that he has an interest in its not being carried
off--for instance, by his having undertaken the entire responsibility
for its safe custody;--or if he possesses it in good faith, or has a
usufruct or any other right in it whereby he suffers loss or incurs
liability through its being forcibly taken from him, the action will
be maintainable by him; not necessarily in order to restore to him the
ownership, but only to compensate him for what it is alleged he has lost
by its being taken from his goods or withdrawn from his means. In fact,
it may be said generally that where, supposing property to be taken
secretly, the action of theft will lie, the action on robbery will lie
at suit of the same person, if it be taken with violence.
TITLE III. OF THE LEX AQUILIA
Unlawful damage is actionable under the lex Aquilia, whose first chapter
provides that if a slave of another man, or a quadruped from his flocks
or herds, be unlawfully killed, the offender shall pay to the owner
whatever was the highest value thereof within the year next immediately
preceding.
1 From the fact that this enactment does not speak of quadrupeds simply,
but only of such quadrupeds as are usually included under the idea of
flocks and herds, it is to be inferred that it has no application to
wild animals or to dogs, but only to such beasts as can properly be said
to graze in herds, namely horses, mules, asses, oxen, sheep, and goats.
It is settled, too, that swine come under its operation, for they are
comprehended in 'herds' because they feed in this manner; thus Homer in
his Odyssey, as quote by Aelius Marcianus in his Institutes, says, You
will find him sitting among his swine, and they are feeding by the Rock
of Corax, over against the spring Arethusa.'
2 To kill unlawfully is to kill without any right; thus a man who kills
a robber is not liable to this action, if he could in no other way
escape the danger by which he was threatened.
3 So, too, where one man kills another by misadventure, he is not liable
under this statute, provided there is no fault or carelessness on his
part; otherwise it is different, for under this statute carelessness is
as punishable as wilful wrongdoing.
4 Accordingly, if a man, while playing or practising with javelins, runs
your slave through as he passes by, a distinction is drawn. If it be
done by a soldier in his exercising ground, that is to say, where such
practice is usually conducted, he is in no way to blame; but if it be
done by some one else, his carelessness will make him liable; and so
it is with the soldier, if he do it in some place other than that
appropriated to military exercises.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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