Damages

practice. The i demnity given by law, to be recovered from the wrong doer by a person who has sustained an injury, either in his person, property or relative rights, in consequence of the acts of another. Damages are given either for breaches of contracts or for tortious acts. Damages for breach 0 contract may be given, for example, for the non-performance of a written or verbal agreement; or of a cove: nant to do or not to do a particular thing. As to the measure of damages the general rule is,'that the delinquent shail answer for all the injury which results from the immediate and direct breach of his agre¢ment, but not for any remote conse quences. In cases of eviction, 0”? covenant of seisin and warranty, te cons! costs. But in Massachusetts, on the covenant of warranty the measure of damages is the value of the land at the time of eviction. 4 Kent’s Com. 462, 3, and the cases there cited. Damages for. tortious acts are given for acts against the person, _ as’an assault and battery; against the reputation, as libels and slander; against the property, as, trespass, when force is used, or for the consequential acts of the tort-feasor; as, when in consequence of a man building a dam on his own premises, he overflows his neighbour’s land; against the relative rights of the party injured, as, criminal conversation with his wife. No settled rule or line of distinction can be marked out when a possibility of damages shall be accounted too remote to entitle: a party to claim a recompense: each case must be ruled by its own circumstances.

Ham. N. P. 40; vide 7 Vin. Ab. 247; Yelv. 45,a; Ib. 176, a; 2 Bac. Ab. 263; 1 Lilly’s Reg. 525; Domat, liv. 3, t. 5, s. 2, n. 4; Toull. liv. 3,n. 286; 2 Saund. 107, note; 1 Rawle’s Rep.. 27; Coop. Just. 606; Com. Dig. h.-t.

DAMAGES ON BILLS OF