Page:Laws of Hammurabi, King of Babylonia.djvu/19

Rh 114. Anyone without right demanding grain or gold from another and under duress forcing its delivery shall for each and every offence committed by him pay ⅓ "mine" of silver [to the injured person].

115. If anyone having a claim against another for grain or gold shall exercise judicial restraint over that person, and that person dies a natural death while undergoing imprisonment, the person occasioning the imprisonment shall not be held accountable therefor.

116. If, however, such imprisoned person dies in the house of the claimant from the effects of blows or harsh treatment inflicted upon him, the person causing his restraint [the murderer] shall be produced in court; in event the person dying was a free man, the son of the person causing his death shall suffer the death penalty in event of conviction. If on the other hand the decedent was a slave, the murderer shall pay ⅓ "mine" of money [to the decedent's owner]. The murderer's estate shall become the property of the slave's owner [or the heirs of the freeman].

117. Anyone who shall, by reason of his indebtedness, sell his wife's son or daughter for money or hires them [or either of them] out for forced labor in order that he may pay his indebtedness with the proceeds realized from their labor, the person so hired out shall be compelled to work for 3 years for the purchaser [hirer] and in the fourth year he or she shall be emancipated.

118. In event a slave, male or female, is hired out for forced labor and the person hiring them rehires them to someone else, he shall not be adjudged to be at fault in so doing.

119. Anyone who owes a debt and for payment thereof sells a female slave, who has born children, shall be compelled to furnish money for the purpose of emancipating her.

120. If anyone stores grain in the house of another and an accident happens to the grain, or the bailee converts the grain to his own use and afterward shall deny the existence of any such grain stored in his house, then the owner upon making claim under oath for his grain [which is substantiated], shall be entitled to receive from the bailee the grain lost or converted by the bailee to his own use in undiminished quantity.

121. Anyone storing grain in the house of another shall compensate the bailee by paying to him 5 "ka" of grain for every 1 "gur" of grain stored during the year.

122. If anyone intrusts to another gold, silver or other personal property for safe-keeping, he shall exhibit the articles to be stored to a witness and thereby close the contract for safe-keeping [which shall be a binding contract of bailment].

123. In event the witness to the contract [alleged to have been made] shall afterward appear and deny its existence, the bailee shall be discharged of any liability on account of the alleged contract.

124. Anyone depositing with another one gold, silver or any personal property before a witness, shall be entitled to have restored to him the article in undiminished quantity.

125. Anyone receiving for bailment [for hire] another's property, which property, together with his own property, is lost or stolen while in his possession, shall return [the value of] that which was given him [bailed with him] for safe-keeping to the owner or bailor. The bailee may recover it [the stolen property from the thief] and shall not be adjudged to have committed an offence.