Risk of Loss - Intermediate Profits

Although the title to the thing sold did not pass to the buyer until the thing was delivered to him and the price was paid (unless the sale was on credit), yet when his title became complete by the delivery and payment, it was held to date not from the time of delivery or payment, but from the time of the making of the contract. The buyer was considered the owner from the time the thing was sold and the price agreed upon. Hence the property was held to be at the risk of the buyer from the date of the sale although not yet delivered to him.

If the property was lost or destroyed before delivery without any one's fault, the. loss fell on the buyer and he was required to pay the price although he never received the property (res perit domino). Conversely the buyer was entitled to all the products or increase of the thing, in the absence of a contrary agreement (cujus periculum, ejus et commodatum esse debet). The buyer was also required to pay the expenses of keeping the thing prior to delivery. The above rule as to risk of loss could be set aside by an agreement that the thing should be at the seller's risk until delivery.

An exception to the general rule was made in the case of fungibles, that is, things sold by weight, number, or measure. These remained at the risk of the seller until weighed, counted, or measured for the buyer. If, however, they were not sold by weight, number, or measure, but sold in a lot for a stated sum, they were at the buyer's risk. Thus, if a flock of sheep was sold for one sum for the lot, the risk was on the buyer from the time of the sale but if sold at so much a head, then they were at the buyer's risk only from the time they were selected. (Dig. 18, 1, 35, 6) There were also some other exceptions. (Hunter, 286)

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Effects of Marriage with Manus

By the strict marriage the wife passed into the marital power of her husband {in manum viri). The manus or marital power may be regarded as a particular form of the patria potestas. An uxor in manu was a member of her husband's household. Although called a materfamilias, this term did not have a meaning corresponding to the term paterfamilias. The wife was not the head of the family. She stood legally in the position of a daughter {in loco filiafamilias) of her husband. If she had children she was regarded as a sister of her own children. The relation of husband and wife, both as regards the wife's person and her property, was governed by the same rules of law as governed the relation of father and child. The law of husband and wife may, therefore, be considered as merely a particular branch of the law of parent and child. The husband had, in general, the same power over the person of his wife in manu as the father had over his child. Anciently, it may be suppo...
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Slavery by Birth

The children of a female slave became the slaves of her master. The status of the father as free or slave was immaterial. The general rule governing the determination of the status of a child, whether as free or slave, or as citizen or alien, was as follows : Children born in lawful wedlock had the status of the father at the moment of conception, children born out of wedlock had the status of the mother at the moment of birth. Hence if the father of a child of a lawful marriage was free at the moment of conception, the child was free although the father should subsequently lose his freedom. As to children born out of wedlock, the general rule, as above stated, was that it was the status of the mother at the moment of birth that determined the status of the child. If the mother was free at the moment of conception but a slave at the moment of birth, the child was a slave, and conversely. This was the earlier law, but the rule was modified in the interest of liber...
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Mandate (Mandatum)

Mandate (mandatum) was a contract by which one person mandatarius agreed to do something gratuitously at the request of another mandator , who, on his part, agreed to save him harmless from all loss in so doing. The mandator was said to give the mandatory a mandate, or commission to do the act in question. The term mandatum is sometimes translated "agency", but this translation is misleading. The mandatory is not properly described as an agent. Mandate was the only gratuitous consensual contract; the others, sale, hiring, and partnership, all being founded upon a consideration. Like the others, it was a bona fidei negotium , and bound the parties to do all that was required by good faith. It was of the essence of the contract of mandate that the mandatory should act gratuitously. But while this was true in a strict legal sense, it was allowed to agree upon a sum to be paid as a honorium , or salary, which might be recovered only by a special action and not b...
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