Table VI: Acquisition and Possession

When a party shall make bond ¹¹ or conveyance,¹² the terms of the verbal declaration are to be held binding.
Articles which have been sold and handed over are not acquired by a buyer otherwise than when he has paid the price to the seller or has satisfied him in some other way, that is, by providing a guarantor or a security.
A person who has been ordained a free man [in a will, on condition] that he bestow a sum of 10,000 pieces on the heir, though he has been sold by the heir, shall win his freedom by giving the money to the purchaser.
It is sufficient to make good such faults as have been named by word of mouth, and that for any flaws which the vendor had expressly denied, he shall undergo penalty of double damage.
Usucapio of movable things requires one year's possessions for its completion; but usucapio of an estate and buildings, two years.¹³
A person shall not dislodge from a framework a [stolen] beam which has been fixed in buildings or a vineyard.... Action [is granted] for double damages against a person found guilty of fixing such [stolen] beam.

¹¹ The Nexum contract was a form of loan in which the creditor enjoyed the right of execution against the person of the debtor, and through which the defaulting debtor became the bond-slave of the creditor until the debt was paid.
¹²Mancipatio, a method of acquiring ownership through a symbolic sale per aes et libram, "By copper and scales." The conveyance took place in the presence of five Roman citizens. The buyer grasped the property or part of it, claimed ownership, and struck with a peice of bronze or copper a scale held by a libripens, "scale-balancer." Finally he handed over to the seller the piece of metal as symbolical of the price.
¹³ This limitation on the patria potestas introduced a form of civil marriage without manus, the legal power of a husband over his wife.

Table VII: Rights concerning Land

Ownership within a five-foot strip [between two pieces of land] shall not be acquired by long usage.
The width of a road [extends] to eight feet where it runs straight ahead, sixteen round a bend....
Persons shall mend roadways. If they do not keep them laid with stone, a person may drive his beasts where he wishes.
If rainwater does damage... this must be restrained according to an arbitrator's order.
If a water course directed through a public place shall do damage to a private person, he shall have right of suit to the effect that damage shall be repaired for the owner.
Branches of a tree may be lopped off all round to a height of more than 15 feet.... Should a tree on a neighbor's farm be bent crooked by a wind and lean over your farm, action may be taken for removal of the tree.
It is permitted to gather up fruit falling down on another man's farm.