Book III: Different ways of acquiring property

Although it is said that the seller will not be subject to any guarantee, he nevertheless remains liable for that which results from an event which is personal to him: any agreement to the contrary is null and void.

In the same case of a stipulation of non-warranty, the seller, in the event of eviction, is liable to repay the price, unless the purchaser knew at the time of the sale of the danger of eviction or bought at his own risk.

Where the guarantee has been promised, or where nothing has been stipulated on the subject, if the purchaser is evicted, he is entitled to claim against the seller: 1° The restitution of the price; 2° That of the fruits, when he is obliged to return them to the owner who evicts him; 3° The costs made on the buyer’s claim in warranty, and those made by the original claimant; 4°…

Where, at the time of the eviction, the thing sold is diminished in value, or considerably deteriorated, either by the negligence of the buyer, or by accidents of force majeure, the seller is no less obliged to return the full price.

But if the purchaser has made a profit from the damage done by him, the seller is entitled to withhold from the price a sum equal to that profit.

If the thing sold is found to have increased in price at the time of the eviction, independently even of the act of the purchaser, the seller is obliged to pay him what it is worth above the sale price.

The seller is obliged to reimburse the purchaser, or have the purchaser reimburse the seller, for all useful repairs and improvements made to the land.

If the seller had sold someone else’s land in bad faith, he will be obliged to reimburse the purchaser for any expenses, even voluptuary or pleasure expenses, that the purchaser has incurred on the land.

If the purchaser is evicted only from a part of the thing, and it is of such consequence, in relation to the whole, that the purchaser would not have bought without the part from which he has been evicted, he may have the sale rescinded.

If, in the case of the eviction of part of the business sold, the sale is not terminated, the value of the part of the business from which the purchaser is evicted shall be reimbursed to him according to the valuation at the time of the eviction, and not in proportion to the total price of the sale, whether the thing sold has increased or decreased in value.