Damages must in all cases be reasonable, and where an obligation of any kind appears to create a right to unconscionable and grossly oppressive damages, contrary to substantial justice, no more than reasonable damages can be recovered.
S.D. Codified Laws § 21-1-3
Damages to be reasonable
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case Gross v. Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Co. (1985)
Most recently applied in Peska Properties, Inc. v. Northern Rental Corp. (June 2022)
Source: CivC 1877, § 1985; CL 1887, § 4618; RCivC 1903, § 2330; RC 1919, § 2002; SDC 1939 & Supp 1960, § 37.1704.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.