actual damages
Defined in 5 dictionaries — Case Law, Cyclopedic (1922), Ballentine's (1916), Bouvier (1914), Black's (1891)
Definitions from Case Law
From 57 U.S. 480 - Seymour v. McCormick · 1853Most cited · 169 citing opinions
Actual damages must be actually proved, and cannot be assumed as a legal inference from any facts which amount not to actual proof of the fact. What a patentee 'would have made, if the infringer had not interfered with his rights,' is a question of fact and not 'a judgment of law.' The question is not what speculatively he may have lost, but what actually he did lose.
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
See "Damages."
Ballentine's Law Dictionary
James A. Ballentine · 1916
Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia
John Bouvier; revised by Francis Rawle · 1914
The damages awarded for a loss or injury actually sustained; in contradistinction from damages implied by law, and from those awarded by way of punishment. See Damages.
A Dictionary of Law
Henry Campbell Black · 1891
Real, substanhis actua! and real loss or damage; opposed to “nominal damages,” which is a trifling sum awarded as a matter of course, and nob in compensation, but merely in recognition of the fact that his right has been technically 5 violated; and opposed also to “exemplary” or “punitive” damages, the latter being in excess of the real loss, and intended asa punishment to the wrong-doer, or {from motives of public policy) to discourage a repetition of such acts. ¢