8 Finally, it should be observed that where a contract has been entered
into by a slave or son in power at his master's or parent's bidding,
or where there has been a conversion to his uses, a condiction may be
brought directly against the parent or master, exactly as if he had
been the original contracting party in person. So too, wherever a man
is suable by either of the actions called exercitoria and institoria,
he may, in lieu thereof, be sued directly by a condiction, because in
effect the contract in such cases is made at his bidding.
TITLE VIII. OF NOXAL ACTIONS
Where a delict, such as theft, robbery, unlawful damages, or outrage,
is committed by a slave, a noxal action lies against the master, who
on being condemned has the option of paying the damages awarded, or
surrendering the slave in satisfaction of the injury.
1 The wrongdoer, that is, the slave, is called 'noxa'; 'noxia' is the
term applied to the wrong itself, that is, the theft, damage, robbery,
or outrage.
2 This principle of noxal surrender in lieu of paying damages awarded is
based on most excellent reason, for it would be unjust that the misdeed
of a slave should involve his master in any detriment beyond the loss of
his body.
3 If a master is sued by a noxal action on the ground of his slave's
delict, he is released from all liability by surrendering the slave in
satisfaction of the wrong, and by this surrender his right of ownership
is permanently transferred; though if the slave can procure enough money
to compensate the surrenderee in full for the wrong he did him, he can,
by applying to the praetor, get himself manumitted even against the will
of his new master.
4 Noxal actions were introduced partly by statute, partly by the Edict
of the praetor; for theft, by the statute of the Twelve Tables; for
unlawful damages, by the lex Aquilia; for outrage and robbery, by the
Edict.
5 Noxal actions always follow the person of the wrongdoer. Thus, if your
slave does a wrong while in your power, an action lies against you; if
he becomes the property of some other person, that other is the proper
person to be sued; and if he is manumitted, he becomes directly and
personally liable, and the noxal action is extinguished. Conversely, a
direct action may change into noxal; thus, in an independent person has
done a wrong, and then becomes your slave (as he may in several ways
described in the first Book), a noxal action lies against you in lieu of
the direct action which previously lay against the wrongdoer in person.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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