A, dominus, sold and delivered (by traditio) res mancipi to B who sold and delivered it to C from whom it was stolen by D who sold and delivered it to E who bought in good faith - Explain the rights and duties of A,B,C,D and E.

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A, dominus, sold and delivered (by traditio) res mancipi to B who sold and delivered it to C from whom it was stolen by D who sold and delivered it to E who bought in good faith.  Each of the above transactions took place on consecutive days.  Explain the rights and duties of A, B, C, D and E.

A (Aulus) is the lord and master of his property, dominus.  For Aulus to have dominium, he would have to have commercium – he would have to be a Roman citizen; have property that could be privately owned and could only acquire property through the proper channels.  Res mancipi were defined as slaves, beasts of burden, Italic land and rustic praedial servitudes and is the fundamental classification of property in Roman law.  This was extremely important in relation to the conveyance of property.  When Aulus made delivery – by traditio – of res mancipi, dominium was not automatically transferred but the recipient (in this case, B - Balbus) would be granted bonitary ownership.  To comply with this ius gentium mode of acquisition, the delivery had to be made with the appropriate intent, i.e. iusta causa. If Aulus were just to deliver res mancipi, this would not constitute the transfer of res mancipi.  As the Digest recounted: -

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‘Bare delivery of itself never transfers ownership.’

 Aulus’s property could only be transferred by two formal methods – mancipatio and cessio. Mancipatio was the primary mode of transferring res mancipi in the ius civile and was regarded as such even before the inception of the Twelve Tables.  Both mancipiato and cessio necessitated the transfer of res mancipi in the presence of witnesses.

It is evident that Aulus made a legitimate sale of res mancipi - it would be his duty as dominus to complete the transaction lawfully and his rights to the res mancipi would be transferred to Balbus.

Upon legitimate recipt of the res ...

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