MANAGEMENT OF ANOTHER'S AFFAIRS. - The management of another's affairs (*negotiorum gestio*) is a form, at least in a broad sense, of quasi-contract (v.) and practically corresponds to a presumed mandate. It consists in the management of any affair in the name and on behalf of a third party who is presently absent or unaware, but who would prudently be presumed to give the mandate if aware of the matter. Many are the circumstances that can give rise to the management of another's affairs: sudden call to arms or flight before an invading enemy of one who had no time to attend to all his affairs; sudden death of groups of people, due, e.g., to bombings, epidemics, mass arrests; civil disturbances; finding of objects whose origin and ownership are unknown. Whoever, in the said or similar circumstances, assumes the responsibility of providing for the maintenance of another's things and property (livestock, house, land) becomes a manager of affairs.
Among the principal moral obligations of the manager of affairs is that of administering the object of the management with diligence proportionate to the task and then rendering an account to the interested party. Among his rights, instead, is that the interested party recognize as done by himself whatever was necessary for the preservation of the object of the management; this does not exclude the possible obligations to which the manager may have been subject; and that of being reimbursed for all necessary and useful expenses incurred for the object itself, even if these did not subsequently result in a successful outcome. It is also permissible that he be given a reward proportionate to the work and risks he incurred and to the service rendered to the owner. Civil legislation then generally better defines the relations between the manager and the owner. Italian law, among other things, does not permit one who is incapable of contracting to assume the management of another's affairs (Italian Civil Code, art. 2020) and does not intend for him to be subject to the obligations of the management as if it were a true mandate (art. 2030); it also imposes the burden of continuing the management until the heirs can attend to it directly, should the first interested party die in the meantime (art. 2028). Neither Catholic morality nor civil law imposes as a burden of justice the assumption of the management of another's affairs. However, the general obligation of charity remains to do so, if possible, provided it does not constitute a grave inconvenience, there are no others who can or wish to do so, and a grave loss is feared for the interested party should the management not be assumed. Once, however, the burden of the management has been assumed, it is generally a grave duty of justice to carry it out according to moral law and current customs.
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