Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

Damages

n. pl. Money claimed by, or ordered to be paid to, a person as compensation for loss or injury <the plaintiff seeks $8,000 in damages from the defendant>. - damage, adj "Damages are the sum of money which a person wronged is entitled to receive from the wrongdoer as compensation for the wrong." Frank Gahan, The Law of Damages 1 (1936).

abridgment of damages

The right of a court to reduce the damages in certain cases. Cf. REMITTITUR.

accumulative damages

Statutory damages allowed in addition to amounts available un- der the common law. - Also termed enhanced damages.

accumulative damages.

See DAMAGES.

action in equity. An action that seeks equitable relief, such as an injunction or specific performance, as opposed to damages.

actual damages

An amount awarded to a complainant to compensate for a proven injury or loss; damages that repay actual losses. - Also termed compensatory damages.

actual damages.

See DAMAGES.

added damages

See punitive damages.

added damages.

See punitive damages under DAMAGES.

additional damages

Damages usu. provided by statute in addition to direct damages. ( Additional damages can include expenses resulting from the injury, consequential damages, or punitive damages.

aggravated damages.

see punitive damages under damages.

benefit-of-the-bargain damages

Damages that a breaching party to a contract must pay to the aggrieved party, equal to the amounts that the aggrieved party would have received, including profits, if the contract had been fully performed.

benefit-of-the-bargain damages.

See DAMAGES.

compensatory damages

1 Damages sufficient in amount to indemnify the injured person for the loss suffered. - Often shortened to compensatories. 2. See actual damages.

consequential damages

See DAMAGE

continuing damages

1 Damages arising from the same injury. 2. Damages arising from the repetition of similar acts within a definite period.

damages for detention

See noncontract demurrage under DEMURRAGE.

damages for lost expectations

See expectation damages.

damages ultra

See DAMAGES.

damages, mitigation of

See MITIGATION-OFDAMAGES DOCTRINE.

direct damages

See general damages.

discretionary damages

Damages (such as mental anguish or pain and suffering) that are not definitive but are measurable by the enlightened conscience of an impartial juror.

divided-damages rule

Maritime law. The obsolete principle that when two parties are jointly liable to a third party for a tort, each party is liable for only half the damages. 0 The courts now apply a comparative-negligence standard."For over a hundred years admiralty law embraced the rule of divided damages' in collision cases .... In 1975, in United States v. Reliable Transfer Co., 421 U.S. 397, 95 S.Ct. 1708, 44 L.Ed.2d 251 (1975), the Supreme Court jettisoned that inequitable and illogical rule in favor of proportionate allocation of fault

double damages

Damages that, by statute, are twice the amount that the fact-finder determines is owed, or twice the amount of actual damages awarded. ( In some cases, double damages are awarded in addition to actual damages, so the effect is the same as treble damages.

enhanced damages

1 See accumulative damages. 2. Patents. Damages for patent infringement in an amount up to three times that of compensatory damages, at the discretion of the court, based on the egregiousness of the defendant's conduct, including the willfulness of the infringement.

estimated damages

See liquidated damages.

excess damages

Damages awarded to an insured - beyond the coverage provided by an insurance policy - because the insurer did not settle the claim within policy limits. ( If the insurer acted in bad faith in not settling, the insured may have a claim to recover the excess damages from the insurer. - Also termed excess-liability damages.

excess-liability damages

See excess damages under DAMAGES.

excessive damages

A jury award that grossly exceeds the amount warranted by law based on the facts and circumstances of the case; unreasonable or outrageous damages, which are subject to reduction by remittitur. See REMITTITUR.

exemplary damages

See punitive damages.

expectancy damages

See expectation damages under DAMAGES.

expectation damages

Compensation awarded for the loss of what a person reasonably anticipated from a transaction that was not completed. - Also termed expectancy damages; loss-of-bargain damages; lost-expectation damages; damages for lost expectations. "[I]f a person contracts to buy a new car, and then changes his mind overnight and cancels the contract, the seller is in principle entitled to recover his anticipated profit on the transaction even though he has not, at the time of the cancellation, done anything whatever in pursuance of the contract. A person who books a room in a hotel would in theory be liable to pay for the hotel's loss of profit even though he cancels in sufficient time for the hotel to be able to relet the room, so long only as the room in fact remains unlet because there are no takers. Damages of this kind are often called damages for lost expectations, or 'expectation damages', or 'loss of bargain damages'." P.S. Atiyah, An Introduction to the Lour of Contract 310 (3d ed. 1981).

fee damages

Damages awarded to the owner of abutting property for injury caused by the construction and operation of an elevated railroad. 0 The term is used because the damage is to the property owner's easements of light, air, and access, which are parts of the fee.

foreseeable damages

Damages that a breaching party knew or should have been aware of when the contract was made.

future damages

Money awarded to an injured party for an injury's residual or projected effects that reduce the person's ability to function. ( Examples are expected pain and suffering, loss or impairment of earning capacity, and projected medical expenses.general damages. Damages that the law presumes follow from the type of wrong complained of. ( General damages do not need to be specifically claimed or proved to have been sustained. - Also termed direct damages; necessary damages.

future damages.

See DAMAGES.

general damages

See DAMAGES.

hedonic damages

Damages that attempt to compensate the loss of the pleasure of being alive. ( Such damages are not allowed in most jurisdictions.

hedonic damages.

See DAMAGES.

imaginary damages

See punitive damages.

imaginary damages.

See punitive damages under DAMAGES.

inadequate damages

Damages insufficient to fully and fairly compensate the parties; damages bearing no reasonable relation to the plaintiff's injuries, indicating prejudice, mistake, or other fact to support setting aside a jury's verdict.

incidental damages

See DAMAGES.

interest as damages

Interest allowed by law in the absence of a promise to pay it, as compensation for a delay in paying a fixed sum or a delay in assessing and paying damages. Cf. conventional interest.

irreparable damages

Damages that cannot be easily ascertained because there is no fixed pecuniary standard of measurement, e.g., damages for a repeated public nuisance.

land damages

See just compensation under COMPENSATION.

lawful damages

Those damages fixed by law and ascertained in a court of law.

lay damages

vb. To allege damages, esp. in the complaint. See AD DAMNUM CLAUSE.

limitation-of-damages clause

A contractual provision by which the parties agree on a maximum amount of damages recoverable for a future breach of the agreement. - Also termed liquidated-damages clause.

liquidated damages

An amount contractually stipulated as a reasonable estimation of actual damages to be recovered by one party if the other party breaches. ( If the parties to a contract have agreed on liquidated damages, the sum fixed is the measure of damages for a breach, whether it exceeds or falls short of the actual damages. - Also termed stipulated damages; estimated damages. See LIQUIDATED-DAMAGES CLAUSE. Cf. unliquidated damages; PENALTY CLAUSE. "Where the terms of a contract specify a sum payable for non-performance, it is a question of construction whether this sum is to be treated as a penalty or as liquidated damages. The difference in effect is this: The amount recoverable in case of a penalty is not the sum named,but the damage actually incurred. The amount recoverable as liquidated damages is the sum named as such. In construing these terms a judge will not accept the phraseology of the parties; they may call the sum specified 'liquidated damages,' but if the judge finds it to be a penalty, he will treat it as such." William R. Anson, Principles of the Law of Contract 470 (Arthur L. Corbin ed., 3d Am. ed. 1919). "The distinction between a penalty and genuine liquidated damages, as they are called, is not always easy to apply, but the Courts have made the task simpler by laying down certain guiding principles. In the first place, if the sum payable is so large as to be far in excess of the probable damage on breach, it is almost certainly a penalty. Secondly, if the same sum is expressed to be payable on any one of a number of different breaches of varying importance, it is again probably a penalty, because it is extremely unlikely that the same damage would be caused by these varying breaches. Thirdly, where a sum is expressed to be payable on a certain date, and a further sum in the event of default being made, this latter sum is prima facie a penalty, because mere delay in payment is unlikely to cause damage. Finally, it is to be noted that the mere use of the words 'liquidated damages' is not decisive, for it is the task of the Court and not of the parties to decide the true nature of the sum payable." P.S. Atiyah, An Introduction to the Law of Contract 316-17 (3d ed. 1981).