Note 93 — Chapter IV · THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

It is worth notice that an action may be purely penal even though the penalty is payable to the person injured. It is enough in such a case that the receipt of the penalty should not be reckoned as or towards the compensation of the recipient. A good example of this is the Roman actio furti by which the owner of stolen goods could recover twice their value from the thief by way of penalty, without prejudice nevertheless to a further action for the recovery of the goods themselves or their value.