Title XXXVI: On Injuries and Damage Inflicted

Latin source headnote: Because of its brevity, it is not summarized.

In Exodus.

If men shall have quarreled, and one strikes his neighbor with a stone or fist, and he shall not have died but shall have lain in bed, if he shall have arisen and walked outside upon his staff, the one who struck him shall be innocent, yet in such manner that he restore his lost labor and expenses for physicians.

Latin source headnote: It is brief, and therefore is not summarized.

In the same place.

If anyone opens a cistern and digs it, and does not cover it, and an ox or ass falls into it, the owner of the cistern shall render the price of the beasts; but that which is dead shall be his.

Latin source headnote: It is brief, and therefore is not summarized.

In the same place.

If another's ox wounds the ox of another, and it dies, they shall sell the living ox and divide the price; but they shall divide between themselves the carcass of the dead one. But if he knew that the ox had been apt to gore since yesterday and the day before, and its owner did not keep it, he shall render ox for ox and shall receive the whole carcass.

In the same place.

If anyone damages a field or vineyard and lets loose his beast so that it feeds upon another's property, he shall restore as the valuation for the damage whatever best thing he has in his own field or vineyard.

Latin source headnote: It is brief and is not summarized.

In the same place.

If fire going out finds thorns and seizes stacks of grain or standing crops in the fields, the one who kindled the fire shall render the damage.

Latin source headnote: It is brief and almost the same as the preceding chapter.

From the Roman Penitential.

If anyone voluntarily burns someone's house or threshing floor, he shall restore everything removed and burned and shall do penance for three years.

Latin source headnote: A secular power that has placed a cleric under ban ought to be condemned by an ecclesiastical judge according to the valuation of the injury, expenses, and damages. And today add the penalty in Clementines 1, On Penalties.

Honorius III, to the Bishop of Bologna.

Formerly, when we wrote to our venerable brother, the Bishop of Modena, that, coming personally to Florence, he should effectively admonish and induce the government, councilors, and people of the city of Florence to make satisfaction for the damages and injuries inflicted upon our venerable brother, the Bishop of Fiesole, and the churches of Fiesole, and, if it should be necessary, should constrain them by ecclesiastical censure, the same Bishop of Modena, more diligently executing our mandate as to the admonition and having granted a period of delay, received witnesses before joinder of issue. Therefore we, having entirely revoked his proceeding because he had proceeded to the reception of witnesses before joinder of issue, have thought that the commune of Florence, because it had placed the same Bishop of Fiesole under ban contrary to God and ecclesiastical liberty, should by sentence be condemned, on account of the injury of the ban and the expenses and damages ensuing on such an occasion, after valuation had first been made by oath, to pay one thousand pounds of current money to the aforesaid Bishop of Fiesole.

Latin source headnote: One who swears to a statute concerning damages not to be reclaimed will, notwithstanding this, be able to reclaim expenses. This is what it says; or thus: A statute concerning damages not to be reclaimed does not extend to expenses.

Gregory IX.

You proposed in our presence and that of our brothers that formerly the citizens of Brescia, being very greatly burdened by restorations of damages inflicted upon one another, which they had incurred on account of many civil discords, generally approved and even confirmed by oath a statute issued [by our venerable brother the Patriarch of Antioch, then Bishop-elect of Brescia], [namely] that restorations of this kind were not thereafter to be sought or received from the commune. [But recently, not without our labor and solicitude, you procured that, concerning the discord that gravely troubles those citizens, the consuls and council swore precisely and absolutely that they would obey all your mandates; yet, unless it should happen that provision is made by the commune of Brescia for those suffering damages at least in the expenses that they made on an occasion of this kind, you cannot perfectly quiet that discord without its undergoing a relapse. Concerning this you sought that an apostolic (remedy) be applied.] Therefore, since restoration of damages is one thing and satisfaction of expenses another, and hence it ought not to be understood that the matter of expenses was comprehended in the oath furnished concerning the article of damages, we command [your fraternity by apostolic writings] that, notwithstanding the aforesaid oath, by our authority you provide that, for the good of concord, the said commune contribute something toward satisfaction of the expenses according to the judgment of your discretion, to be moderated by you as shall be expedient. [Given at the Lateran, on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of April, in the fourth year of our pontificate, 1230.]

Latin source headnote: It contains several statements and summarizes itself.

The same.

If through your fault damage was caused or an injury inflicted, or perhaps you gave aid to others inflicting them, or these things occurred through your lack of skill or negligence, by law you ought to make satisfaction for them; nor does ignorance excuse you if you ought to have known that injury or loss could probably result from your act. But if you allege that your animals did harm, you are nevertheless bound to satisfaction unless, by giving them to those who suffered the damage, you wish to free yourself; this, however, does not avail for liberation if they were wild animals, or ones accustomed to do harm, and you did not take the diligence that you ought to have taken. Indeed, although one who gives the occasion of damage is seen to have caused the damage, nevertheless it must be said otherwise of one who omitted nothing among the contingencies so that it would not happen.