EMPTIO

In the Roman and civil law. The act of buying; a purchase. Emptio bonorum. A species of forced assignment for the benefit of creditors; being a public sale of an insolvent debtor’s estate whereby the purchaser succeeded to all his property, rights, and claims, and became responsible for his debts and liabilities to the extent of a quota fixed before the transfer. See Mackeld. Rom. Law, s 521. Emptio et venditio. Purchase and sale; sometimes translated “eruption and vendition.” The name of the contract of sale in the Roman law. Inst. 3, 23; Bract, fol. 61A. Sometimes made a compound word, emptio-venditio. Emptio rei sporate. A purchase in the hope of an uncertain future profit; the purchase of a thing not yet in existence or not yet in the possession of the seller, as, the cast of a net or a crop to be grown, and the price of which is to depend on the actual gain. On the other hand, if the price is fixed and not subject to fluctuation, but is to be paid whether the gain be greater or less, it is called emptio apei. Mackeld. Rom. Law, 1400.