QUESTION

THE THIRD.

ON THE FORMULA OF STIPULATION

in Law 1, Section "If anyone in such a way," Digest, On Verbal Obligations: Whether the promisor is bound by that alone, with nothing else concurring?

THESIS I.

IF anyone should unexpectedly ask me, "Will you stand surety for me?" or "Will you lend me a hundred?" or "Will you lease your house to me?" and so on, and I should reply, "Why not?"—it has pleased some to hold that a stipulation has been contracted and that I am effectively bound. By the said section, "If anyone in such a way."

II.

For it is a well-known point of law that an obligation is contracted by words, through interrogation and response, when we stipulate that something be given or done for us. Law 5, Section "Stipulation," where the Doctors [comment], Digest, On Verbal Obligations; the text in the beginning, where the Doctors [comment] in the Institutes, On Verbal Obligations; the Doctors on the rubric, On Verbal Obligations, there Marianus Socinus the Younger, no. 140, and Carolus Molinaeus, no. 10.

III.

Especially today, since the niceties of formulas have been abolished, by Law "All," Code, On contracting or permitting stipulations, even an agreement or pact is held to be a stipulation and produces an effective action. By the text, chapter 1, On Pacts, in the Antiqua.

IV.

But others more rightly maintain the contrary: that from words alone, neither is a stipulation contracted with effect, nor does any obligation arise which cannot be repelled by an exception.