Actus Dei Nemini Facit Injuriam: a Maxim of Law

Actus Dei Nemini Facit Injuriam is a legal maxim, used in India, with the following meaning:
The act of God prejudices no one. The law does not hold a man to a legal duty where he is
prevented from performing it by an act of God. Act of God means an accident or event which
happens independently of human intervention and due to natural causes, such as storm,
earthquake, etc., which no human foresight can provide against, and of which human prudence is
not bound to recognise the possibility; an event leading to a property loss caused by forces of
nature that could not have been prevented by reasonable care or foresight. This maxim is not
applicable to a mere ‘inevitable accident’ where the duty is imposed by the rule in Rylands v.
Fletcher ([1868] LR 3 HL 330). A man may contract so as to be bound to pay damages if he fails
to do what is, or becomes, impossible. Recently, the Supreme Court in M.C. Mehta v. Union of
India (AIR 1987 SC 1086.) held that where an enterprise is engaged in a hazardous or inherently
dangerous activity and harm results to anyone on account of an accident in the operation of such
hazardous or inherently dangerous activity resulting, for example, in escape of toxic gas, the
enterprise is strictly and absolutely liable to compensate all those who are affected by the
accident and such liability is not subject to any of the exceptions which operate vis-a-vis the
tortuous principle of strict liability under the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher.