Definition of DELICT in Black's Law Dictionary 4th Edition – Legal dictionary – Glossary of legal terms.
Definition of DELICT
In the Roman and civil law. A wrong or injury; an offense; a violation of public or private duty.
It will be observed that this word, taken in its most general sense, is wider in both directions than our English term "tort." On the one hand, it includes those wrongful acts which, while directly affecting some individual or his property, yet extend in their injurious consequences to the peace or security of the community at large, and hence rise to the grade of crimes or misdemeanors. These acts were termed in the Roman law "public delicts;" while those for which the only penalty exacted was compensation to the person primarily injured were denominated "private delicts." On the other hand, the term appears to have included injurious actions which transpired without any malicious intention on the part of the doer. Thus Pothier gives the name "quasi delicts" to the acts of a person who, without malignity, but by an inexcusable imprudence, causes an injury to another. Poth.Obl. 116. But the term is used in modern jurisprudence as a convenient synonym of "tort."
Quasi Delict
An act whereby a person, without malice, but by fault, negligence, or imprudence not legally excusable, causes injury to another. They were four in number, viz.: (1) Qui judex Went suam fecit, being the offense of partiality or excess in the judex, (juryman.) (2) Dejecturn effusumve aliquid, being the tort committed by one's servant in emptying or throwing something out of an attic or upper story upon a person passing beneath. (3) Darnnurn infecturn, being the offense of hanging dangerous articles over the heads of persons passing along the king's highway. (4) Torts committed by one's agents in the course of their employment. Brown.
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That's the definition of DELICT in Black's Law Dictionary 4th Edition – Legal dictionary – Glossary of legal terms. Courtesy of Cekhukum.com.
