Legal Articles

Lat. In old English law. Of no legal force. Fleta, lib. 2, c. 60,

In old English practice. A messenger. One who was sent to make an excuse for a party summoned, or one who explained as for a friend the reason of a party’s absence. Bract, fol. 345. An officer of a court; a summouer, apparitor, or beadle. Cowell.

Nominal damages are a trifling sum awarded to a plaintiff in an action, where there is no substantial loss or injury to be compensated, but still the law recognizes a technical invasion of his rights or a breach of the defendant’s duty, or in cases where, although there has been a real injury, the plaintiff’s evidence entirely fails to show its amount. Maher v. Wilson, 139 Cal. 514, 73 Pac. 418; Stanton v. Railroad Co., 59 Conn. 272, 22 Atl. 300. 21 Am. St. Rep. 110; Springer v. Fuel Co., 196 Pa. 156. 40 Atl. 370; Telegraph Co. v. Lawson, 60 Kan. 000, 72 Pac. 2S3; Railroad Co. v. Watson, 37 Kan. 773. 15 Pac. 877. Substantial damages are considerable in amount, and intended as a real compensation for a real injury.

A term said to be of much wider scope in the law of damages than “pecuniary.” It embraces all those consequences of an injury usually denominated “general” damages, as distinguished from special damages; whereas the phrase “pecuniary damages” covers a smaller class of damages within the larger class of “general” damages. Browning v. Wabash Western R. Oo. (Mo.) 24 S. W. 746.

Properly the period of twenty-four hours from midnight to midnight. Co. Litt. 135; Fox v. Abel. 2 Conn. 541; People v. Hatch, 33 111. 137. Though sometimes taken to mean the “day-time” or time between sunrise and sunset. In re Ten Hour Law. 24 R. I. 003, 54 Atl. 602, 61 L. R. A. 612.

One on which process cannot ordinarily issue or be served or returned and on which the courts do not ordinarily sit. Whitney v. Blackburn, 17 Or. 564. 21 Pac. 874, 11 Am. St. Rep. 857. More proi>- erly “nonjuridical day.”