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Injury to sons in power

But once one was prepared to go beyond the mere aestimatio corporis or vulneris in the case of slaves, there was no reason not to contemplate some form of compensation when, say, a filius familias was injured.

It can hardly have been comprehensible to a Roman paterfamilias why he should be able to recover medical expenses as well as loss of earnings when a slave of his was injured, but not when it came to his son in power. The jurists did not find that comprehensible either, and thus they started granting actiones legis Aquiliae utiles, where filii familias had been injured.[5282] [5283] [5284] [5285] Our main source010 is lul./Ulp. D. 9, 2, 5, 3, the famous case of the shoemaker's apprentice:

"[SJutor... puero discenti ingenuo filio familias, parum bene facienti quod demonstraverit, forma calcei cervicem percusserit, ut oculus puero perfunderetur."[5286]

The shoemaker obviously became impatient because his apprentice (a freeborn youngster) did not grasp what he was being taught. He thus resorted to a somewhat rough and ready teaching tool: a last, with which he struck at the neck of the boy. As a result of this, something rather unforeseen and unfortunate happened: the boy's eye was knocked out."[5287] According to Julian, the actio iniuriarum did not lie "quia non faciendae iniuriae causa percusserit, sed monendi et docendi causa"; and whether the actio locati could be brought was rather doubtful.* [5288] There was, however, no doubt in Julian's mind that Aquilian protection was available to the paterfamilias;[5289] and as far as the content of the claim was concerned, he referred to "quod minus ex operis filii sui propter vitiatum oculum sit habiturus, et impendia, quae pro curatione fecerit."[5290]

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Source: Zimmermann R.. The Law of Obligations. Roman Foundations of the Civilian Tradition. Juta & Co, Ltd,1992. — 1241 p.. 1992

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