The effects of resolutive conditions
What, then, were the effects of a resolutive condition where the parties were in fact able to append it to their contract? None for the time being; for the transaction was regarded as "pura",[3749] which meant that it instantly became fully effective.
Thus, for example, the parties had to render their performances, the contract provided a iusta causa traditionis as well as usucapionis, and a contract of sale was regarded as perfecta (with the result that the risk passed to the purchaser).[3750] If the condition was satisfied, on the other hand, the contract was dissolved and restitution had to be effected: the purchaser could claim back the purchase price, the vendor the object of the sale. For this purpose the parties could avail themselves of the actiones empti and venditi[3751]—rather surprisingly so, in view of the fact that the contract of sale no longer existed.[3752] Various attempts were made to explain this apparent dogmatical inconsistency; Papinian, for example, argued that, since the parties had initially contracted a sale, the dissolution of their relationship, too, had to follow the rules of sale.[3753] This was not a particularly compelling proposition and thus we find Ulpian merely referring to an authoritative ruling on the matter: "[E]t quidem finita est emptio", he stressed, but then he added: "sed iam decisa quaestio est ex vendito actionem competere, ut rescriptis imperatoris Antonini et divi Severi declaratur." [3754] Ownership in the object of the sale, incidentally, automatically reverted to the vendor on satisfaction of the resolutive condition. There is ample support in our sources for this proposition:[3755] thus, for instance, we read that the purchaser could no longer avail himself of an action in rem after the event, upon which the resolution of the contract hinged, had occurred;[3756] and if the purchaser had in the meantime pledged the object of the sale, the encumbrance fell away with the dissolution of the contract: "ex quo colligitur", writes Marcellus,[3757] "quod emptor medio tempore dominus est: alioquin nee pignus teneret." But he was owner only "medio tempore", not after the condition had been satisfied. The vendor was therefore able to avail himself of the rei vindicatio to reclaim the object of the sale; usually, however, he preferred to bring the more convenient actio venditi.128III.
More on the topic The effects of resolutive conditions:
- 1. The construction of resolutive conditions
- RESOLUTIVE CONDITIONS
- The admissibility of resolutive conditions
- Most of our texts by far, concerning resolutive conditions, deal with three specific clauses, frequently appended, by way of pacta ex continent! adiecta,129 to contracts of sale.
- EFFECTS OF EMPIRE AT THE CENTRE: GENDER AND NATION
- The effects of immorality
- 1. The possible effects of illegality
- Effects of Codification in General
- Economic transformation: the effects of globalization
- We have been looking at the basic requirements for a contract of sale and at its main effects.
- Conditions and Terms in Contracts
- Positive and negative conditions
- Interpretation of conditions
- Conditions in general