CHAPTER XII - Special Cases (cont.)

Summary

SERVUS FUGITIVUS.

Broadly speaking a fugitivus is one who has run away from his dominus. The word is used, however, in two senses which must be kept distinct. One of the regular warranties exacted on the sale of a slave is that he is not fugitivus. This means that he has never been a fugitivus in the above sense. It is a breach of this warranty, if he be fugax, given to running away—which is itself a punishable offence. For the purpose of the peculiar incapacities and penalties we have to consider, it is necessary that he be in flight at the present moment, and this is what is ordinarily implied in the expression servus fugitivus. It is in connexion with sale that the private law deals most fully with these slaves, and it is there we must look for an exact answer to the question: what is a fugitivus? He is one who has run away from his master, intending not to return. His intent is the material point, a fact illustrated by two common cases. He runs away, but afterwards repents and returns: he has none the less been a fugitivus. He runs away and takes his vicarius with him: the vicarius is not a fugitivus, unless he assented, in full understanding, and did not return when he could. It is not essential that he be off the property of his master, if he be beyond control, and thus one who hides in order to run away when he can is a fugitivus. He does not cease to have been a fugitivus by renouncing his intention, e.g. by attempting suicide.