and, if the article’s price has fallen and buyers have lost interest in it, he may choose either to keep it for the full price he paid or to return it—provided he has not, after learning of the defect, consented to keep it, for any such consent constitutes disposal. Pledging it as security or renting it out, however, is not counted as disposal, and whenever the defective item comes back into his possession he may still return it.

If someone sells a slave and later discovers that the slave had a defect, he is entitled to nothing and his claim will not be heard. Yet should the slave return to him through a fresh purchase or by any other means, he may then proceed with a claim on account of the defect. Some jurists say that selling the slave, in this respect, is like the slave’s death or emancipation, and that the buyer may seek from the first seller compensation for the defect. Another view holds that if, when reselling the slave, he had reduced the price because of the defect—thinking the defect had arisen while the slave was with him—and afterwards learns that it pre-dated his ownership, he may recover from the original seller the compensation due for the defect.

If a person dies after having discovered a defect in goods he had bought and intended to return, his heirs inherit the choice either to return the goods or to keep them.

Neither emaciation nor obesity in a slave, by itself, counts as a defect that entitles the buyer to rescind the sale. If the slave has become fat, the buyer may not both keep her and demand compensation; he may either keep her without compensation or return her because of some other defect, but only after restoring the amount by which her becoming thin under his care diminished her value. If he purchased her while emaciated and she later grew fat, there are two opinions: one says he may either return her or, if he keeps her, claim compensation; the other—which is the preferred view—states that if he keeps her he is not entitled to any compensation, as mentioned above.

Whoever buys a female slave with a defect and has intercourse with her before learning of it may, once he becomes aware of the defect, return her if he wishes. If she was previously deflowered, he may reclaim the full price he paid. If she was a virgin, he must return her together with the amount by which his intercourse has reduced her value, and then recover the price. Should he have intercourse with her after knowing of the defect, the sale becomes binding and he can no longer return her.