Damages - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition damages

Definition :

Damages, constitute the sum of money claimed or adjudged to be paid in compensation for loss or injury sustained, the value estimated in money, of something lost or withheld, Divisional Controller K.S.R.T.C. v. Mahadeva Shetty, (2003) 7 SCC 197 (202).

The expression 'damages' is neither vague nor over-wide. It has more than one signification but the precise import in a given context is not difficult to discern. A plurality of variants stemming out of a core concept is seen in such words as actual damages, civil damages, compensatory damages, consequential damages, contingent damages, continuing damages, double damages, excessive damages, exemplary damages, general damages, irreparable damages, pecuniary damages, prospective damages, special damages, speculative damages, substantial damages, unliquidated damages. But the essentials are (a) detriment to one by the wrong
doing of another, (b) reparation awarded to the injured through legal remedies, and (c) its quantum being determined by the dual components of pecuniary compensation for the loss suffered and often, not always, a punitive addition as a deterrent-cum-denunciation by the law, organs, Chemical Industries v. Union of India, (1979) 4 SCC 573 (591).

The compensation as fixed by the jury, or judge if the case be tried without a jury, payable to a successful plaintiff.

Courts of Equity long laboured under the infirmity of not being able to award damages by way of compensation for a fraud, or for the non-performance of a contract relating to the sale and purchase of realty. This was amended by the (English) Chancery Amendment Act, 1858 (21 & 23 Vict. c. 27), 'Cairns's Act,' which provided that in all cases in which the Court of Chancery had jurisdiction to entertain an application for an injunction against a breach of agreement, or against the commission of a wrongful act, or for the specific performance of any agreement, the same Court might award damages to the party injured, either in addition to or in substitution for such injunction or specific performance.

This Act, in substance re-enacted by s. 24 of the (English) Judicature Act, 1873, is expressly revealed by the Statute Law Revision and Civil Procedure Act, 1883. See now Judicature Act, 1925, s. 36.

The Judicature Acts allow matters to be set up by a defendant by way of counter-claim, which must formerly have been the subject of a separate action; and, therefore, a defendant may in effect recover damages. See R.S.C., Ord. XXI., R. 17, and COUNTER-CLAIM,

Damages fall under two heads: (1) General damage, i.e., such damage as the law will presume to flow from that which forms the subject-matter of the action; and (2) Special damage, i.e., such other damage as can be recovered only if it is specially alleged and specifically proved. When an action cannot be sustained unless there is special damage, the subject-matter is described as not being actionable per se.

Damages are either liquidated or unliquidated. Whenever the amount to which the plaintiff is entitled can be ascertained by calculation or fixed by any scale or other positive data, it is said to be 'liquidated' or made clear. But when the amount to be recovered depends on all the circumstances of the case and on the conduct of the parties, and is fixed by opinion or by an estimate, the damages are said to be 'unliquidated'; see Odgers on the Common Law.

Damages, too, may be further classified as--

(1) Contemptuous Damages, e.g., a farthing verdict in an action for libel, usually indicating that in the opinion of the jury the action ought never to have been brought.

(2) Nominal Damages, e.g., 40s. where no actual damage has been proved, and usually indicating that though the action was a proper one to bring, its object was not so much the recovering of damages as the establishing a right, see Nicholls v. Ely Beet Sugar Factory, (1936) 1 Ch 343.

(3) Substantial Damages, i.e., the fair and adequate compensation which reasonable men would award in respect of the matters which formed the basis of the action.

(4) Vindictive, Retributory, or Exemplary Damages, i.e., damages in excess of what would have been adequate compensation, and usually awarded by a jury to mark their sense of a defendant's conduct; e.g., the character of a libel, or the mode in which the subject-matter of the action arose, e.g., time and place of an assault or trespass, or the peculiar nature of the wrong or the distress of mind produced in the plaintiff, e.g., actions of seduction, false imprisonment breach of promise of marriage.

See Hadley v. Baxendale, (1854) 32 LJ Ex 179; Smith's Leading Cases, vol. Ii and the notes thereto; and Argentino, 14 App Cas 519; 13 PD 191; and s. 51, (English) Sale of Goods Act, 1893.

Damages that are remote and contingent cannot be recovered see Sapwell v. Bass, (1910) 2 KB 486; and as to the measure of damages for prospective loss in the case of personal injury, see Johnston v. G.W. Ry., (1904) 2 KB 250, and (English) Law Reform (etc.) Act, 1934, s. 1 (c).

Damages for the vendor's breach of contract for sale of land are subject to the rule that if the breach consists only of a defect in title and provided that the vendor acted bona fide and with reasonable grounds of belief in his title, the damages will not include loss of profit or of the benefit of the contract, see Bain v. Fothergill, LR 7 HL 158.

See also DOUBLE DAMAGES; INTEREST; MEASURE OF DAMAGES; and ACTIO PERSONALIS; and consult Mayne on Damages.

Damages, as defined by Mcgregor 'are the pecuniary compensation, obtainable by success in an action, for a wrong which is either a tort or a breach of contract, the compensation being in the form of a lump sum which is awarded uncon-ditionally', Common Cause v. Union of India, AIR 1999 SC 2979 (3016): (1999) 6 SCC 667.