CASE 39: Acquisitions by a Wife in Manus
Tituli ex Corpore Ulpiani 19.18-19
(18) Adquiritur autem nobis etiam per eas personas quas in potestate manu manci- piove habemus.
itaque si quid mancipio puta acceperint aut traditum eis sit vel stipulati fuerint, ad nos pertinet. (19) Item si heredes instituti sint legatumve eis sit, et hereditatem iussu nostro adeuntes nobis adquirunt et legatum ad nos pertinet.(Excerpts from Ulpian’s Writings)
(18) We acquire (property) through those persons whom we have in our potestas, our manus,style='font-weight:bold'> or our charge (mancipium). So if, for instance, something is mancipated or handed over to them or a formal promise is made to them, it comes to us. (19) Likewise, if they are named heirs or a legacy is made to them, they acquire an inheritance for us by entering it on our orders, and the legacy comes to us.
1. Acquisitions. Again in this Case, the similarity between the position of a wife in manus and that of children-in-power is emphasized. During her marriage, the wife in manus owns nothing of her own and therefore cannot bring any lawsuit based on her ownership (Gaius, Inst. 2.96). She cannot make a binding promise to anyone (ibid. 3.104, 114); and, as this Case indicates, anything that she acquires goes automatically to her husband, including, for instance, an inheritance or a legacy that she receives from a third party. Quite apart from the moral objections one will certainly have to this legal arrangement, what are its likely practical disadvantages?
2. Can Your Wife Be Stolen? A third party who abducted someone's son-in- power interfered with the rights of the pater familias. One line of legal thinking, probably old, allows the pater familias to avenge his loss by bringing a claim on the delict of theft against the abductor; how damages would be reckoned is impossible to say, but they would presumably be thought of as a multiple of the value of the son's “worth” to the pater familias—as measured, perhaps, by his work. In any case, not surprisingly, the pater was also allowed to sue if his wife in manus was “stolen” (Gaius, Inst. 3.199 = Case 108). In calculating damages, how would a judge measure her worth?