Essential characteristics and range of application
We have seen that medici were able to work for mcrces.[1975] [1976] In other words, they could render their services under a contract of locatio conductio. Such a contract was, however, not necessarily locatio conductio operarum. Indeed, in one of the texts referred to above,4y the doctor was said to be liable ex locato: "Proculus ait, si medicus servum imperite secuerit,... ex locato... compctere actionem."[1977]" Had he been employed under a contract of service, he would himself have been the locator. But since we are dealing with an operation, the services as such were not the object of the contract. What was owed was opus faciendum, a particular job to be done as a whole. This is the essential characteristic of locatio conductio opens.[1978] [1979] One person undertakes to perform or execute a particular piece of work, and he promises to produce a certain specified result. This person is called the conductor (operis). The person commissioning the enterprise (the customer) is the locator: he places out the work to be done. "Locavi opus faciendum... 1,52 or, as Paulus says: "Opere locato conducto: his verbis Labeo significari ait id opus, quod Graeci 6aeomEKea/ea vocant, non ?p"yov, id est ea opere facto corpus aliquod perfectum."[1980] In what manner was this contract utilized? Very often there was a physical object to be worked upon or to be created: clothes to be cleaned or repaired,[1981] cloth to be produced from wool,[1982] jewels to be engraved,[1983] a ring to be made,[1984] a house to be built.[1985] Sometimes the object did not undergo any physical change (for example: goods or passengers to be transported),[1986] occasionally it was not a thing but a person (an apprentice to be taught)[1987] and in other instances of locatio conductio operis there was no physical subject matter at all (games to be arranged or a trumpet signal to be given).[1988] The decisive feature of all these transactions is that the customer was not interested in the services or the labour as such, but in the product or result of such labour. Indeed, he usually was not even interested in whether the conductor performed in person or whether he drew on the assistance of his employees. The conductor was responsible for producing the result; how he did this was (usually) up to him. Thus, the conductor was typically also not bound to obey orders or instructions as to the manner of carrying out the work. 2.
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