Damnum iniuria datum

Damnum iniuria datum was a delict of Roman law relating to the wrongful damage to property. It was created by the Lex Aquilia in the third century BC, and consisted of two parts: chapter one, which dealt with the killing of another's slave or certain types of animal; and chapter three which related to other types of property. It was widely extended both by reference to the words of the statute themselves and by the Praetor.

Like similar concepts in the modern law, it had to deal with changes in the way negligence was dealt with, issues of omission, and those of causation.

Damnum iniuria datum can be considered wrongful damage to property. The law of the Empire on this topic is mainly based on the Lex Aquilia, of which the date is uncertain, but earlier than the introduction of the contract of . It does not seem that, as the Institutes rather suggest, and the Digest actually says, it superseded earlier provisions as matter of law, but it was of overwhelming practical importance and seems to have swamped them. On the other hand there was praetorian legislation on the matter, apart from extensions of this statute. But it is plain that this law. with its extensions, was much the most important part of the scheme of remedies. The words damnum iniuria datum mean damage unlawfully caused, but we get the expression actio damni iniuriae.

The Lex Aquilia contained, besides a penalty for adstipulatores who fraudulently released the debtor and, perhaps, a vaguely indicated procedure for multa as an alternative, in the case which does concern us, two important provisions for a civil remedy for damage to property. Its first chapter provided that anyone who unlawfully killed another's slave or beast within the class of pecus, was liable to pay the owner the highest value the thing had had within the previous year. Its third chapter provided that anyone who unlawfully damaged another's property in respects not the coming under the first chapter, by burning, breaking or destroying, was liable to pay him the value the thing had had within 30 days before. The period of time was reckoned back, not from the death, but from the injury. The third chapter did not, like the first, say the highest ("plurimi") value within the 30 days, but the lawyers read this in, in order to give the provision a meaning. So far as the main text goes a man who merely damaged the property had to pay the whole value, but, apart from the bad economics of such a rule, there is a text which implies that what he had to pay was the difference between the highest value and the value after the damage.

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