In
Roman law
Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (), to the (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I.
Roman law also den ...
and the
civil legal systems descending from it, the is a
legal action
In legal terminology, a complaint is any formal legal document that sets out the facts and legal reasons (see: cause of action) that the filing party or parties (the plaintiff(s)) believes are sufficient to support a claim against the part ...
() whereby a
plaintiff
A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the ...
may recover what he has paid the
defendant
In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case.
Terminology varies from one juris ...
by mistake; such mistaken payment is known as . This action does not lie
# if the sum was due , or by a natural obligation;
# if he who made the payment knew that nothing was due, for {{lang, la, qui consulto dat quod non debet, praesumitur donare (who gives purposely what he does not owe, is presumed to make a gift).
The action is extant in civil (Roman) or hybrid law regimes, e.g.
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
and
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
.
[See e.g]
The common law of South Africa By Manfred Nathan, Johannes Voet
/ref>
See also
* Condictio causa data causa non secuta
§ 812 I 1 1. Alt BGB (German Civil Code)
Further reading
Outlines of Roman Law By Thomas Whitcombe GreeneRoman-Frisian law of the 17th and 18th century By J. H. A. Lokin, Frits Brandsma, C. J. H. JansenImperatoris Iustiniani Institutionum Libri Quattuor By John Baron Moyle, Justinian"The evolution of the law of unjustified enrichment"
References
Latin legal terminology