Iniuria
Iniuria ("outrage", "contumely") was a delict in Roman law for the outrage, or affront, caused by contumelious action (whether in the form of words or deeds) taken against another person.
Form
The
The evolution was somewhat interrupted by a lex Cornelia de iniuriis of the time of Sulla, which provided a criminal or quasi-criminal remedy for "pulsare, verberare, vi domum introire" (covering the whole field of the iniuriae dealt with in the XII Tables), and apparently some other proceedings.[2] It is held, on one view, that this legislation excluded these wrongs from the ordinary actio aestimatoria iniuriarum, till late in the classical age, when a rescript of Septimius Severus and Caracalla restored the right to bring a civil action in such cases. But the view that the two remedies existed side by side is also held.[3]
The action was in a special sense "vindictam spirans". It rested not on economic loss but on outraged feelings; hence some characteristic rules. Like other delictal actions it did not lie against the heres of the wrongdoer, but, contrary to the general rule, it could not be brought by the heirs of the injured person. It lay only within a year of the event, and, as it rested on outraged feelings, it did not lie unless there was evidence of anger at the outset (dissimulatione aboletur). As it had nothing to do with property the damages were measured according to the position of the parties, and the grossness of the outrage.
The iniuria need not be directly to the person aggrieved; it is plain that A might be insulted by something done to B. But the important cases of this are of outrage to members of the family. An iniuria to a wife gave an action not only to her but to her husband. An insult to a filiusfamilias was an insult to the paterfamilias as well, who might sue for himself and for his son, though, as in certain circumstances the son might himself sue, there was a provision against two actions nomine filii. Thus where a married daughter of the family was insulted there might be three actions, or more, her own, her husband's, her father's, and even her husband's father's. A sponsus might have an action on an insult to his sponsa, and there were other cases. The damages would not necessarily be the same in these cases: in each the personality of the plaintiff was considered. And though an insult to wife or child was an insult to paterfamilias, the converse was not true.[4] The most remarkable case of indirect insult is that of heredes. An insult to the body or funeral was an insult to the heres if it was the heres had entered into the estate. If not, it was an insult to the hereditas and the heres after entry acquired it like other claims of the hereditas.[5]
Iniuria to a slave
Iniuria to a
If there were several masters all of them might have an action, and the damages would vary, not with their share, but with their position. But in no case of iniuria to a slave, apart from verberatio, etc., was the action a matter of course: it was given causa cognita. If there were less rights in the slave, e.g. usufruct, the fructuary might have an action, but the iniuria was prima facie presumed to be to the owner. So too a bona fide possessor might have it, and, if the man was really free, both might have it.[6]
Atrox iniuria
A distinction between "atrox" and ordinary iniuria frequently recurs. As the question, which it was, was probably left to the praetor, it is likely that the distinction was not very exactly drawn. We are told in varying terms that it might be atrox ex re (or facto) from its extreme nature, or ex persona, the person insulted being one to whom special respect was due (e.g. the patron, or a magistrate), or ex loco, where it was very public. The chief results of the insult being classed "atrocitas" were that an action would lie on insult to a slave, and that the damages were differently estimated. In general the plaintiff fixed his maximum claim by a taxatio, which the
Other remedies
In many cases there were criminal remedies for iniuria, in increasing number. In later law an extraordinarium indicium for punishment was always available as an alternative, which would be used where the defendant was without means, and was evidently sometimes used in other cases of extreme insult. Whichever way the matter was tried, condemnation involved infamia.[7]
References
- Includes material taken from Buckland, W.W. (1921). A Textbook of Roman Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., a work now in the public domain.