Fiducia
If a person transferred his property to another on condition that it should be restored to
him, this contract was called
fiducia, and the person to whom the
property was so transferred was said
fiduciam accipere. A man might
transfer his property to another for the sake of greater security in time of danger, or for
other sufficient reason. The contract of fiducia or pactum fiduciae also existed in the case
of pignus, and in the case of mancipation. (See
Emancipatio.) The
hereditas itself might be an object of fiducia.
The trustee was bound to discharge his trust by restoring the thing; if he did not, he was
liable to an
actio fiduciae or
fiduciaria, which was
an
actio bonae fidei. If the trustee was condemned in the action, the
consequence was
infamia.
