1. Warranty of peaceable possession
In Roman law, emptio venditio did not imply a warranty of title.[1497] [1498] If the vendor was not the owner of what he sold, he was not able to transfer ownership to the purchaser: nemo plus iuris ad alium transferre potest, quam ipse haberet? That, of course, did not mean that the contract of sale was invalid,[1499] tor it was not (objectively) impossible to perform what had been promised. The purchaser could sue the vendor if the object was not handed over to him, but he did not have a remedy merely on account of his lack of title. This followed from the fact that there was no obligation on the vendor to transfer ownership;[1500] he merely had to grant the purchaser undisturbed possession. Being in possession, the latter was able to usucape and acquire ownership that way. However, the vendor was responsible not only for "vacuam possessionem tradere" but also for sustaining the continued enjoyment of the res.[1501] There was therefore an implied warranty of peaceable possession, for as soon as the true owner, by asserting his title, evicted the purchaser,[1502] the latter could hold the vendor responsible. This liability for eviction,[1503] as we find it in the law of Justinian and as it has become part and parcel of the ius commune, was the result of a long and interesting historical development, in the course of which several legal institutions, supplementing each other, eventually grew together. 2.
More on the topic 1. Warranty of peaceable possession:
- Condition and warranty in English law
- Possession
- Possession
- Possession
- 2. POSSESSION
- Interdictal protection of possession
- Acquisition, Maintenance and Loss of Possession
- Protection of Possession
- Possession
- So far in this chapter, we have concerned ourselves with ownership (and, related thereto, possession) as the real right that accrued to a person in respect of his own property (ius in re propria).
- Real contracts (contractus re) were agreements that became operative and binding on the transfer of possession or physical control of a tangible thing (res corporalis).
- Liability for eviction and latent defects
- Emphyteusis
- In the previous paragraphs, frequent references emphasized the notion of possession as a key to the acquisition of the right of ownership.
- The acquisition of proprietary interests was the chief concern of the law of property.