Warranty of Quality

Up to about 150 B. C. it seems that the buyer had no remedy if the thing sold had faults unknown to the seller, unless there was an express warranty against faults by the formal contract of stipulation. But later it became the law that the buyer could rescind the sale or claim an abatement of price if the thing sold had undisclosed faults that interfered with its proper enjoyment. This addition to the law was due to the edict of the curule sediles who had jurisdiction over the Roman markets.

The effect of this edict was to create an implied warranty, in the absence of an express warranty, against certain faults in slaves, animals, etc., sold, and gave a remedy to the buyer in case of his subsequent discovery of undisclosed faults. It is said that long before this edict there had been a practice of requiring an express warranty in the case of sales of slaves and cattle, and the edict simply extended the idea by creating an implied warranty against undisclosed faults.

It was immaterial that the seller was ignorant of the faults, indeed if he knew of the faults and concealed them, he was guilty of fraud (dolus) and was liable for damages resulting from the fault. There was an implied warranty against fraud on the part of the seller, and an agreement exempting him from responsibility for fraud was void. (Williams, 202; Dig. 13, 6, 17.)

An action could be maintained on an express warranty, but mere praising or puffing of the thing by the seller was not construed into a warranty.

Note. It will be observed that the rule of the Roman law as to implied warranty was exactly the reverse of the English rule of caveat emptor.

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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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