DAMAGE. The loss caused by one person to another, or to his property, either with the design of injuring him, or with negli gence and carelessness, or by inevitable acci dent.
In England, in the common law courts, it was held that neither in common parlance nor in legal phraseology is the word "dam age" used as applicable to injuries done to property ; 40 L. J. Q. B. 218 ; 41 L. J. C. P. 128.
The admiralty courts on the other hand contended that the word did include claims for personal injury and even for loss of life; 37 L. J. Adm. 14; 38 id. 12, 50; 46 L. J. P. D. & A. 71; 2 P. D. 8.
But the House of Lords construing section 7 of the Admiralty Court Act, 24 Viet. c. 10, providing that "the High Court of Admiralty shall have jurisdiction over any claim for damages done by any ship" established the former doctrine, and held that a claim for loss of life under Lord Campbell's Act is not a claim for• damage within the provisions of the Admiralty Court Act ; 54 L. J. P. D. & A. 9; 10 App. Cas. 59.
But the word may be controlled by the con text and can mean personal injury ; 52 L. J. Q. B. ; and there seems in this country to be no distinction between the meaning of the words damage and injury.
Damage to the person as used in the Mas sachusetts statute relating to survival of ac tions, does not extend to torts not directly affecting the person, but includes every ac tion the substantial cause of which is bodily injury, as the negligent sale of deadly poison for a harmless drug as the result of which a man dies; Norton v. Sewall, 106 Mass. 143, 8 Am. Rep. 298.
He who has caused the damage is bound to repair it ; and if he has done it mali ciously he may be compelled to pay beyond the actual loss ; Fay v. Parker, 53 N. H. 342, 16 Am. Rep. 270. When damage occurs by accident without blame to any one, the loss is borne by the owner of the thing in jured : as, if a horse run away with his rider, without any fault of the latter, and injure the property of another person, the injury is the loss of the owner of the thing. When the damage happens by the act of God, or inevitable accident, as by tempest, earth quake, or other natural cause, the loss must be borne by the owner. See Comyns, Dig.; Sedgvvick ; Mayne ; Sutherland ; Joyce ; Hale ; Field, Damages ; 1 Rutherf. Inst. 399 ; COM