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]