Definition
Specific quantifiable loss.
Damages which must be specifically pleaded and proved.
Etymology & Origin
From Latin 'specialis' (of or belonging to a particular species or kind, individual), from 'species' (a particular sort, appearance, form). 'Special' in this legal sense means 'specific, particularised, individually identified' as opposed to 'general'. Special damages are thus damages that must be specifically identified — pleaded by the claimant with particularity and proved by evidence — because they do not flow so obviously from the wrong that the law will presume them.
Full Legal Analysis
Special Damages: Loss That Must Be Specifically Pleaded and Proved
Damages divide, for pleading and proof purposes, into two categories: general and special. Special damages are those losses that do not flow so naturally and necessarily from the wrong that the law will presume them — they are specific, quantifiable, and must be individually identified by the claimant in the pleadings and established by evidence at trial. Without specific pleading and proof, special damages cannot be recovered, however real the loss may in fact have been.
The Rule of Particularity
The defining feature of special damages is the requirement of particularity. A claimant who seeks to recover, say, the cost of medical treatment, the wages lost during recovery, or the expense of repairing damaged property, must set out each head of loss specifically in the statement of claim — the items, the amounts, the dates, the basis of calculation. A general assertion that 'the claimant suffered financial loss' is insufficient. The defendant is entitled to know, in advance of trial, precisely what losses are being claimed, so that they may investigate, admit, or dispute each item. At trial, the claimant must prove each pleaded item by evidence.
Contrast with General Damages
The distinction from general damages is fundamental. General damages are those losses that the law presumes to flow from the wrong as a matter of course — pain and suffering from a physical injury, loss of reputation from a libel, the general loss of enjoyment of life. These need not be specifically pleaded; they are inferred from the nature of the wrong. Special damages, by contrast, are the specific, out-of-pocket, quantifiable losses that depend on the particular circumstances of the claimant — the cost of a taxi to hospital, the fees of a specialist, the specific contract lost because of the defendant's slander. The classic application is in slander, where (outside the actionable-per-se categories) the claimant must prove special damage — a specific financial loss flowing from the spoken defamation — before any recovery is possible. Indian civil procedure, following the common law, requires special damages to be pleaded and proved with the same particularity.
“The law will presume the loss that necessarily follows from a wrong; it will not presume the loss that only happens to follow. For the latter — the specific, the particular, the contingent — the claimant must speak plainly: name the loss, count the cost, prove the sum. Justice in special damages demands no guessing.”
