Definition
In Roman and civil law, the buyer's action — the legal remedy available to a purchaser arising out of a contract of sale. *Empti actio* is the action brought by the buyer (emptor) against the seller to enforce the obligations of the contract of sale, including delivery of the thing sold, transfer of title, and warranty against defects or eviction. It is the counterpart to the *venditi actio*, which is the seller's action against the buyer, primarily for payment of the purchase price.
The term is frequently encountered as *actio ex empto* — the more common Latin form meaning the same thing — and the two are treated interchangeably in the civilian tradition.
Common Confusion
EMPTI ACTIO / ACTIO EX EMPTO: Burrill's own entry redirects "Empti actio" to "Actio ex empto," confirming that these are the same remedy referred to by two equivalent Latin formulations. Researchers should not treat them as distinct causes of action. The difference is grammatical, not substantive: *empti* is the genitive of *emptio* (purchase), while *ex empto* is the ablative construction meaning "from the purchase." Both denote the buyer's civil law action on the contract of sale.
EMPTIO / EMPTI ACTIO: *Emptio* is the underlying legal transaction — the purchase or contract of sale itself. *Empti actio* is the action arising from that transaction. The distinction tracks the civilian separation between the obligatio (the contractual bond) and the actio (the procedural remedy to enforce it). Conflating the two is a common slip when reading Latin civil law sources.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in civil law and Roman law sources. Researchers will encounter it in treatises on the civil law of sales, in early common law texts that borrow civilian terminology, and in Louisiana, Quebec, and Scottish legal materials where the civilian tradition of sale survives in operative law.
The primary navigational trap is fragmentation across Latin forms. Sources may use *empti actio*, *actio empti*, *actio ex empto*, or simply reference *emptio* while discussing the remedy — all pointing to the same buyer's action. A corpus search limited to one form will miss most occurrences.
In historical common law sources, the term appears not as a live procedural remedy (common law courts did not recognize Roman actiones by name) but as learned commentary — in Bracton above all, where Roman categories are imported into the English treatise tradition. Bracton's reference (fol. 61b, cited by Burrill) is the primary English common law touchpoint and should be treated as doctrinal exposition rather than evidence of a recognized common law cause of action.
For researchers working in Louisiana or other mixed jurisdictions, the buyer's action on the contract of sale is substantively continuous with the civilian tradition, though modern codifications use contemporary terminology. Historical civilian sources using *empti actio* map onto modern warranty and redhibition provisions in those codes.
The term also signals a context in which the researcher should be alert to the classical Roman law distinction between *emptio venditio* (consensual sale) and the various special remedies — the *actio redhibitoria* for latent defects, the *actio quanti minoris* for price reduction — which were separate from the general *empti actio* but closely related.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill treats *empti actio* as a simple cross-reference to *actio ex empto* and locates the substantive discussion there, consistent with his general practice of organizing Roman law actions under the *actio* heading. His entry for *emptio* (also spelled *emtio* in nineteenth-century sources, reflecting variant Latinity) cites Calvinus's *Lexicon Juridicum* and Bracton's *De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae* at folio 61b as the primary authorities — standard touchstones for civilian terminology in the common law treatise tradition.
The historical dictionaries are collectively thin on the buyer's remedy as a standalone entry, preferring to develop the law of *emptio venditio* (the contract of sale) and leaving the procedural action underdeveloped. Researchers requiring substantive treatment of the remedy's scope, the seller's duties it enforces, and its relationship to warranty actions should look to Pothier's treatise on the contract of sale and to Domat's *Les Loix Civiles* rather than to the English legal dictionaries, which treat the term as essentially a cross-reference point.
Jurisdictional Note
In common law jurisdictions, *empti actio* has no direct procedural counterpart and appears only in historical and comparative law contexts. In civil law jurisdictions and mixed systems — Louisiana, Quebec, South Africa, Scotland — the substantive buyer's remedy descends from the same Roman law source, though it is now expressed through modern codified provisions rather than the classical actio form.