Unum debitum ex pluribus causis
Occasionally a debtor may be bound to render similar performances by virtue of several obligations to one and the same creditor; he may, for instance, owe money on account of a contract of sale, as a result of having received a loan and under the law of unjustified enrichment.
If the debtor pays an amount which is insufficient to satisfy all these debts, the question arises against which of them this payment is to be credited. It has always been generally acknowledged that it is, in the first place, the debtor who may specify the debt(s) that he wishes to be discharged.[3828] Failing such specification on the part of the debtor, the creditor could, according to Roman law, determine the matter. He was, however, bound to make the choice in accordance with what the interest of the debtor demanded: "aequissimum enim visum est creditorem ita agere rem debitoris, ut suam ageret."[3829] If both parties remained silent, a debt due was to be taken to be discharged before a debt not yet due,[3830] among several debts due the one most burdensome for the debtor,[3831] among several equally burdensome debts the oldest;[3832] failing all these criteria, all debts were regarded as having been satisfied proportionately.[3833] By and large, these rules have found their way into the BGB, except that here the creditor is not given a say in the matter.[3834] But since most of the subsidiary rules are based on the presumed will of a reasonable debtor,[3835] by which the creditor, too, had to be guided in his decision, the difference between Roman and modern law is not significant.[3836]3.
More on the topic Unum debitum ex pluribus causis:
- IDEM DEBITUM
- Libro XII Nel dodicesimo libro la trattazione del giurista si sofferma sugli editti quod eo auctore qui tutor non fuerit (gestum [?]) esse dicatur (E. 43), ex quibus causis maiores viginti quinque annis in integrum restituuntur (E. 44), de lite restituenda (E. 45), de alienatione iudicii mutandi causafacta (E. 46), de restitutione heredum (E. 47 [?])[480].
- Arbiter, arbitrator and amicabilis compositor
- Beggiato Martina et alii (eds.). Iulius Paulus: Ad edictum libri IV-XVI. Roma – Bristol: L'Erma di Bretschneider,2022. — 380 p., 2022
- Novation
- Indebitum solutum and unjustified enrichment
- The use of novation and procuratio in rem suam
- Beneficium excussionis vel ordinis
- APPENDIX
- Libro XVI [Sul testamento contrario ai doveri verso i congiunti]
- Libro VII [Sui vadimoni (E. VII.17-24), 2]