— Also termed damnum absque injuria; absque injuria damnum; absque injuria. Cf. INJURIA ABSQUE DAMNO. [Cases: Damages
3. C.J.S. Damages § 7.]
“There are cases in which the law will suffer a man knowingly and wilfully to inflict harm upon another, and will not hold him accountable for it. Harm of this description — mischief that is not wrongful because it does not fulfil even the material conditions of responsibility — is called damnum sine injuria, the term injuria being here used in its true sense of an act contrary to law (in jus), not in its modern and corrupt sense of harm.” John Salmond, Jurisprudence 372–73 (Glanville L. Williams ed., 10th ed. 1947).
“There are many forms of harm of which the law takes no account. Damage so done and suffered is called damnum sine injuria, and the reasons for its permission by the law are various and not capable of exhaustive statement. For example, the harm done may be caused by some person who is merely exercising his own rights; as in the case of the loss inflicted on individual traders by competition in trade, or where the damage is done by a man acting under necessity to prevent a greater evil.” R.F.V. Heuston, Salmond on the Law of Torts 13 (17th ed. 1977).
