Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 1952 (SND Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1754
[0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0]
DAMNUM FATALE, n. comb. Sc. law: “a loss arising from inevitable accident, such as no human prudence can prevent; — such, for example, as the losses occasioned by storms or tempests, lightning, floods . . . or . . . by any calamity falling within the legal description of an act of God” (Sc. 1890 Bell Dict. Law Scot. 281).Sc. 1754 J. Erskine Princ. Law Scot. (1903) ii. vi. 16 A:
If it [eviction of tenant] be due to a cause for which neither party is responsible (damnum fatale and pure accident), neither of them is bound in restitution.
