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COMPENSATION Definition & Legal Meaning

Definition & Citations:

Indemnification; payment of damages; making amends; that which is necessary to restore an injured party to his former position. An act which a court orders to be done, or money which a court orders to lie paid, by a person whose acts or omissions have caused loss or injury to another, in order that thereby the person damnified may receive equal value for his loss, or be made whole in respect of his Injury. Railroad Co. v. Deninan, 10 Minn. 2S0 (Gil. 208).

Also that equivalent in money which is paid to the owners and occupiers of lands taken or injuriously affected by the operations of companies exercising the power of eminent domain. In the constitutional provision for “just compensation” for property taken under the power of eminent domain, this term means a payment in money. Any benefit to the remaining property of the owner, arising from public works for which a part has been taken, cannot be considered as compensation. Railroad Co. v. Burlcett, 42 Ala. 83.

As compared with consideration and damages, compensation, in its most careful use, seems to be between them. Consideration is amends for something given by consent, or by the owner’s choice. Damages is amends exacted from a wrong-doer for a tort. Compensation is amends for something which was taken without the owner’s choice, yet without commission of a tort. Thus, one should say, consideration for land sold; compensation for land taken for a railway; damages for a trespass. But such distinctions are not uniform. Land damages is a common expression for compensation for lauds taken for public use. Abbott.

The word also signifies the remuneration or wages given to an employe or officer. But it is not exactly synonymous with “salary.” See Teople v. Wemple, 115 N. Y. 302, 22 N. E. 272; Com. v. Carter, 55 S. V. 701, 21 Ivy. Law Rep. 1509; Crawford County v. Lindsay, 11 111. App. 201; Ivilgore v. People, 70 111. 548.

In the civil, Scotch, and French law. Recoupment; set-off. The meeting of two debts due by two parties, where the debtor in the one debt is the creditor In the other; that is to say, where one person is both debtor and creditor to another, and therefore, to the extent of what is due to him, claims allowance out of the sum that he is due. Bell; 1 Kames, Eq. 395, 390. Compensation is of three kinds.

See, How to Get Compensated for Common Car Crash Injuries

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