19 The action on robbery is mixed, for the damages recoverable
thereunder are four times the value of the property taken, threefourths
being pure penalty, and the remaining fourth compensation for the loss
which the plaintiff has sustained. So too the action on unlawful damage
under the lex Aquilia is mixed, not only where the defendant denies his
liability, and so is sued for double damages, but also sometimes where
the claim is for simple damages only; as where a lame or one-eyed slave
is killed, who within the year previous was sound and of large value; in
which case the defendant is condemned to pay his greatest value within
the year, according to the distinction which has been drawn above.
Persons too who are under an obligation as heirs to pay legacies or
trust bequests to our holy churches or other venerable places, and
neglect to do so until sued by the legatee, are liable to a mixed
action, by which they are compelled to give the thing or pay the money
left by the deceased, and, in addition, an equivalent thing or sum as
penalty, the condemnation being thus in twice the value of the original
claim.
20 Some actions are mixed in a different sense, being partly real,
partly personal. They are exemplified by the action for the division of
a 'family,' by which one of two or more joint heirs can enforce against
the other or rest a partition of the inheritance, and by the actions
for the division of common property, and for rectification of boundaries
between adjoining landed proprietors. In these three actions the judge
has power, according as shall to him seem fair and equitable, to adjudge
any part of the joint property, or of the land in dispute, to any one
of the parties, and to order any one of them who seems to have an undue
advantage in the partition or rectification to pay a certain sum of
money to the other or the rest as compensation.
21 The damages recoverable in an action may be either once, twice,
three, or four times the value of the plaintiff's original interest;
there is no action by which more than fourfold damages can be claimed.
22 Single damages only are recoverable in the actions on stipulation,
loan for consumption, sale, hire, agency, and many others besides.
23 Actions claiming double damages are exemplified by those on simple
theft, on unlawful damage under the lex Aquilia, on certain kinds of
deposit, and for corruption of a slave, which lies against any one by
whose instigation and advice another man's slave runs away, or becomes
disobedient to his master, or takes to dissolute habits, or becomes
worse in any way whatsoever, and in which the value of property which
the runaway slave has carried off is taken into account. Finally, as we
remarked above, the action for the recovery of legacies left to places
of religion is of this character.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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