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Damnum Absque Injuria - Wikipedia
Damnum Absque Injuria - Wikipedia
In law, damnum absque injuria (Latin for "loss or damage without injury")
is a phrase expressing the principle of tort law in which some person
(natural or legal) causes damage or loss to another, but does not injure
them. For example, opening a burger stand near someone else's may
cause them to lose customers, but this in itself does not give rise to a
cause of action for the original burger stand owner.
Weeks and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. identified several interests that
lacked legal protection altogether. At the time of Weeks' treatise, there
was no legal protection for emotional distress unconnected to a physical
injury. Holmes also cited the example of an easement for light and air—if a
neighbor built up a tall structure that overshadowed your house, you would
have no legal remedy.[2]
Weeks and Holmes also identified that there could be damage without
legal remedy based on some doctrines that limited liability. Contributory
negligence, for example, could deprive a plaintiff of a legal remedy against
a negligent defendant.[3]
Weeks and Holmes also recognized that there could be damage without
legal remedy if the damage occurred outside the scope of protection for
legally recognized interests. Riparian owners, for example, could suffer
damage from their neighbors upstream use of the water, but as long as
the use was considered reasonable there would be no legal remedy.[3]
Reference case
In the 1938 decision in Alabama Power Co. v. Ickes (302 U.S. 464), the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled:
References
4. https://www.informea.org/sites/default/files/court-
decisions/Rylands%20vs%20Fletcher.pdf