Presentation

Seller’s Liability
D. 19.1.54 pr Labeo, Plausible Views, Book II.
Where a slave whom you have sold breaks a leg in doing
something by your order, the risk is not yours, if you
directed him to perform some act which he was accustomed to
perform before the sale, and if you ordered him to do
something which you would have ordered him to do, even if he
had not been sold. Paulus: Absolutely not! for if the slave
had used to perform some dangerous task before the sale, it
will be held that you were to blame for this; as, for
instance, if you had used to compel your slave to go down
into a vault, or into a sewer. The same rule of law applies if
you used to order him to do something which the wise and
diligent head of a family would not order his slave to do.
What if this should be made the ground of an exception? He
can, nevertheless, direct the slave to perform some new task
which he would not have ordered him to perform if he had
not been sold; for example, if he should order him to go to
the home of the purchaser, who lived in a distant place, for
certainly this would not be at your risk. Therefore, the
entire matter merely has reference to the fraud and
negligence of the vendor.