III. On the One Consenting

I. Notion. One consenting is said to be he who, whether by consenting or by casting a vote, influences the damaging act of another. Here can come: 1° Superiors and others who by external consent, laughter, etc., approve the evil will of the evil-doer; 2° legislative assemblies; 3° administrative assemblies of a province, municipality, etc.; 4° judges of diverse instances.

II. Damages to be repaired. The one consenting is bound to restore: 1° the damage in which he cooperated positively; 2° the damage which he did not prevent, and which he both could and, by justice, ought to have prevented.

Question. Which of those who have cast an unjust vote are bound to restore?

Response 1. If the votes were cast either at the same time, for example by standing or sitting, or by agreement,¹ all voting unjustly are bound to restitution, because all are equally the cause of the damage.

Response 2. If the votes were cast neither at the same time nor by agreement, those certainly must restore who certainly voted before the necessary number of votes was completed. But there is dispute about those who afterward cast a vote. Sufficiently probably they are immune from restitution. For although the law is not enacted until all votes have been collected or counted, nevertheless, strictly speaking, votes afterward cast effect nothing, or do not influence the law, since it already cannot be avoided (St. Alphonsus, III, 566).

Response 3. He who doubts whether he voted before or after the necessary number was completed - which will easily occur if votes are cast secretly - is certainly bound to restitution, because by casting his vote he brought it about that the authors of the damage are uncertain; and thus he worsened the right which the one who suffered damage had of recovering restitution from certain damagers. Indeed also for this reason, because he is the cause of uncertainty, he seems to be bound in solidum (St. Alphonsus, Homo Apostolicus, tr. 9, n. 50).²

III. Cessation of the obligation. An obligation that would follow from approval ceases by timely revocation; one that would follow from a vote given ceases for the same reason, provided however that the vote can legally be revoked.

¹ "Before a vote is truly cast by individuals, such a conspiracy rather has the character of counsel; wherefore one who only consented in the meeting of the faction, but in the assemblies themselves is not among those effectively voting, is not held to restitution in the same order, but generally after them" (Lehmkuhl, I, 1201).

² St. Alphonsus says otherwise in Theologia moralis, III, 566; but the text of the second edition seems to have remained changed through forgetfulness.