DAMNUM SINE INJURIA

damnum  sine  injuria  (dam-n<<schwa>>m  sI-nee  in-joor-ee-<<schwa>>  orsin-ay).  [Latin

“damage  without  wrongful  act”]  Loss  or  harm  that  is  incurred  from  something  other  than  a

wrongful act and occasions no legal remedy. • An example is a loss from fair trade competition. —

Also  termed  damnum  absque  injuria;  absque  injuria  damnum;  absque  injuria.  Cf.  INJURIA

ABSQUE DAMNO. [Cases: Damages    3. C.J.S. Damages § 7.]

“There are cases in which the law  will suffer a man knowingly and  wilfully to inflict harm

upon another, and will not hold him accountable for it. Harm of this description — mischief that is

not wrongful because it does not fulfil even the material conditions of responsibility — is called

damnum sine injuria, the term injuria being here used in its true sense of an act contrary to law (in

jus),  not  in  its  modern  and  corrupt  sense  of  harm.”  John  Salmond,  Jurisprudence  372–73

(Glanville L. Williams ed., 10th ed. 1947).

“There  are  many  forms  of  harm  of  which  the  law  takes  no  account.  Damage  so  done  and

suffered is called damnum sine injuria, and the reasons for its permission by the law are various

and  not  capable  of  exhaustive  statement.  For  example,  the  harm  done  may  be  caused  by  some

person who is merely exercising his own rights; as in the case of the loss inflicted on individual

traders by competition in trade, or where the damage is done by a man acting under necessity to

prevent a greater evil.” R.F.V. Heuston, Salmond on the Law of Torts 13 (17th ed. 1977). [Blacks Law 8th]