ad damnumadv.n.
/ˌad ˈdamnəm/, U.S. /ˌæd ˈdæmnəm/ Law.
A. adv.
With respect to the harm or loss suffered by the plaintiff. Now rare.
ΚΠ
1647 Reading R. Brook upon Statute of Limitations xii. 169 The Jury finde that one made the disseisin ad damnum 20 li. and acquit the other.
1702 Conveyancer's Assistant & Director 85 If the Obligor pay 20 l. to the Obligee, then, &c. it was returned to be ad damnum, and so no Market procured.
1824 Morning Post 16 Dec. The Lord Chancellor was aware of that plan; he could not say at the moment whether it would be ad bonum publicum, or ad damnum.
1889 Bangor (Maine) Daily Whig & Courier 23 Oct. The defence was that the bond was given without consideration ad damnum and was for $15,000.
1921 W. Mack et al. Corpus Juris XXV. 1202/2 A declaration by a common informer need not, and ought not, to conclude ad damnum.
2005 J. C. Chaturvedy Acad. Dict. Law & Legislation (at cited word) In all personal and mixed actions,..the declaration concludes ad damnum.
B. n.
The sum of money claimed in compensation for the harm or loss suffered by the plaintiff. Cf. damage n. 4.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > administration of justice > court proceedings or procedure > action of courts in claims or grievances > claim at law > [noun] > a sum payable in damages
damage1542
quantum1602
ad damnuma1754
solatiuma1859
a1754 J. Strange Rep. Cases (1755) 2 1110 In debt upon an old judgment, the plaintiff laid the ad damnum to 10 l. the jury gave interest, which came to 30 l. and for that and costs judgment was entered up.
1832 Amer. Jurist & Law Mag. July 112 In this case the plaintiff had failed to insert any ad damnum in his writ. The error was not discovered till after verdict.
1898 Jewelers' Circular & Horol. Rev. 2 Nov. 14/2 This suit makes the total ad damnum in suits brought against the defendant in connection with the store $8,000.
1923 Lowell (Mass.) Sun 3 Apr. 12/2 The ad damna are as follows: Oberstein, $300; Kaplan $1,000, and Bloomfield $1,000.
1959 Columbia Law Rev. 59 1155 In each country in which it is adopted all civil actions with ad damnums of $2,000 or less..are referred to three-man arbitration panels.
2007 R. J. Winter & E. Greene in F. T. Durso et al. Handbk. Appl. Cognition (ed. 2) xxviii. 756 A number of empirical studies show the influence of the ad damnum on jurors' judgments about damages.
Compounds
General attributive.
ΚΠ
1841 Rep. Supreme Court Vermont 12 597 In the greatest number of cases this question is determined by the ad damnum clause in the declaration.
1914 Southwestern Reporter 161 29/1 The ad damnum allegation in the petition claiming $1,000 damages is surplusage and should have been so treated.
1942 Univ. Pennsylvania Law Rev. 90 430 The action on the case for spoken words was, historically, an outgrowth of the more ancient trespass action with its ad-damnum conclusion.
1993 R. MacCoun in R. Litan Verdict v. 157 Only three juries exceeded the ad damnum request, and all three were in the $10,000 condition.
2011 Virginia Lawyers Weekly (Nexis) 7 Jan. Less than a week before argument in the ad damnum case that had been set for Monday.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adv.n.1647