First Principles of Business Law

6. Causation

6.1.5. The sufficiency of harm

If a plaintiff suffers merely trivial harm, a court may apply the principle 'de minimis non curat lex' to bar any claim for relief. Roughly translated, this Latin phrase means that the law does not concern itself with small matters. In an imperfect world, people are expected to put up with a certain level of inconvenience, discomfort and minor harm. The courts do not allow litigation every time a person is alarmed by a barking dog or splashed by a passing car because such claims are too easy to make, too hard to disprove, and would waste the court's resources. An example of this is the distinction drawn in tort law between psychiatric illness (which is recognised as an actionable harm) and mere fear, anxiety, sadness or anger (which are not).

In some cases, it may be difficult to draw the line, as the example below shows. Read the following facts and then answer the question.

X Corporation begins construction of a new road near residential buildings, one of which is owned by B. Low rainfall has made the ground very dry and X's excavation work causes a lot of fine dust which drifts for miles before settling. B claims that this dust has found its way into his house where it has discoloured curtains, carpets and paintwork. B sues X, alleging that the dust has caused actionable harm. X Corporation argues that dust is one of the ordinary things in life that people simply have to put up with. Do you think that B has suffered sufficient harm to give rise to an action for Negligence?