Damnum absque injuria
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 5 U.S. 137 - William Marbury v. James Madison · 1803Most cited · 5,264 citing opinions
damnum absque injuria—a loss without an injury.
How the Supreme Court has restated “Damnum absque injuria”
Each Supreme Court definition of “Damnum absque injuria,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “Damnum absque injuria”
Court decisions citing the 7 opinions that defined “Damnum absque injuria” — 7,428 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 7 definitions, chronological · 1803–1939
And whatever may be the injury that casually results to an individual from the act of another while pursuing the reasonable exercise of an established right, it is his misfortune. The law pronounces it damnum absque injuria, and the individual from whose act it proceeds is liable neither at law nor in the forum of conscience. And the principal right necessarily carries with it also all the means essential to its exercise.
Where parties litigate in the admiralty, and there was a probable ground for the suit or defence; the court consider the only compensation which the successful party is entitled to, is a compensation in costs and expenses. If the party has suffered any loss beyond these, it is, as was justly observed in the opinion of the circuit court, damnum absque injuria.
admiralty
The plaintiff may have suffered inconvenience and been put to expense in consequence of such action; yet, as the act of defendants is not 'unlawful or wrongful,' they are not bound to make any recompense. It is what the law styles 'damnum absque injuria.
By a great and preponderant weight of judicial authority in those states whose constitutions contain a prohibition of the taking of private property for public use without compensation, substantially in the form employed in the 5th Amendment, it has become established that railroads constructed and operated for the public use, although with private capital and for private gain, are not subject to actions in behalf of neighboring property owners for the ordinary damages attributable to the operation of the railroad, in the absence of negligence. ... The immunity is limited to such damages as naturally and unavoidably result from the proper conduct of the road and are shared generally by property owners whose lands lie within range of the inconveniences necessarily incident to proximity to a railroad. It includes the noises and vibrations incident to the running of trains, the necessary emission of smoke and sparks from the locomotives, and similar annoyances inseparable from the normal and non-negligent operation of a railroad.
railroad operation
a damage to one, without an injury in this sense (damnum absque injuria), does not lay the foundation of an action; because, if the act complained of does not violate any of his legal rights, it is obvious, that he has no cause of action
a damage not consequent upon the violation of any right recognized by law