Lex Aquilia

In the Roman law. The Aquilian law; a celebrated law passed on the proposition of the tribune C. Aquilius Callus, A. U. 672, regulating the compensation to be made for that kind of damage called "injurious," in the dases of killing or wounding the slave or beast of another. Inst. 4. 3; Dig. 9. 2; Code, 3. 35; Calv. Lex.

(B. C. about 287.) The law, superseding the earlier portions of the Twelve Tables, providing a remedy for wilful and negligent damage to corporeal property. Although an action founded upon the text of -this law could only be brought when the damage was caused by actual contact of the offending party with the body of the Injured thing, the praetor subsequently extended it in the shape of an actio utilis, to cases where the damage was merely the indirect result of the act of the defendant, and in certain cases, he even granted an actio in factum after the pattern of the lex aquilia in cases where there was not, strictly speaking, any damage to the thing, but where the owner was deprived of it In such a manner as to make it tantamount to a destruction of the thing. By this law, if the slave or animal were wrongfully killed, the owner could recover from the slayer, not the actual value of the property at the time of the death, but the greatest value that it had possessed during the previous year, and when the damage consisted of any other injury to corporeal things, he was obliged to pay the highest value of such property within the month Immediately preceding. If the wrongdoer denied his liability and judgment was against him, he was obliged to pay double damages. This law also provided for an action against adstipulators who abused their formal rights, but this po.rtion of it fell into disuse because the recognition by the civil law of the obligation by mandatum enabled the Injured party to sue the fraudulent adstipulator by the actio mandati directa tor full damages. See Sohm, Rom. L. 826; Morey, Rom. L. 881.

The Aquilian law; a celebrated law passed on the proposition of the tribune C. Aquilius Gallus, A. U. C. 672, regulating the compensation to be made for that kind of damage called "injurious," in the cases of killing or wounding the slave or beast of another. Inst 4, 3; Calvin

Defined under Lex in Black's Law Dictionary.

In Roman law. The Aquilian law; acelebrated law passed on the proposition of the tribune C. Aquilius Gallus, A, U. C, 672, regulating the compensation to be made for that kind of damage called “injurious,” in the cases of killing or wounding the slave or beast of another. Inst. 4, 3; Calvin.