On What Is Just Regarding the Alienation of Property of Minors

effective fidejussionem suretyship and pignora pledges/collateral in L. 14. §. 1. de Pignor., can be established in L. 1. §. 7. ff. de Constit. pecun. Digest on payment promised, or provides room for Compensationi offsetting debts in L. 6. ff. de Compensat.—so the Civil Law did not think it wise that a tender age should be punished for a slip of the tongue. Wherefore it determined that those effects from which a ward might suffer loss should be weakened and taken away entirely from the natural obligation. And therefore Neratius correctly responded:

original: "Pupillum id, quod sine tutoris auctoritate promisit et solvit, Condictione indebiti repetere posse." A ward can recover by a lawsuit for money not owed what he promised and paid without the authority of his tutor.

And Ulpianus elegantly states,

original: "Interdum, inquit, persona locum facit repetitioni, ut puta, si pupillus sine tutoris auctoritate, vel furiosus, vel is, cui bonis interdictum est, solverit; Nam in his personis generaliter repetitioni locum esse non ambigitur. L. 29. ff. eod. tit." Sometimes, he says, the person gives rise to the right of recovery, as for example if a ward without the authority of his tutor, or a madman, or one who is interdicted from his goods, has paid. For in these persons, it is not doubted that there is generally room for recovery.

Thus, if a ward has promised a horse to someone without a tutor and has given a surety for it, he is said not to be held as regards himself either to the creditor or to the surety in L. 127. ff. de V. O.. Thus, with respect to the enfeebled obligation of the ward, the laws love to speak in the texts cited above by Lord Lauterbach, e.g., L. 59. ff. de Obl. & Act. and L. 41. ff. de Condict. Indeb. and many others.