Also known as: reparations · compensation · restitution · amends
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An act of making amends for a wrong. Compensation awarded to a person for injury or harm sustained.
Ridgeway Partners owned a waterfront parcel that the state seized for a public park. The partners received a lump-sum payment calculated to restore them to the position they occupied before the seizure. The payment served as reparation for the permanent loss of their property interest.
The board of Rising Sun Electronics voted to increase annual stipends for outside directors. Shareholders challenged the vote as self-dealing. The court upheld the increase after finding that the articles permitted the board to set its own compensation and that the amounts constituted reasonable reparation for the directors' time and risk.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Judge Reynolds drafted estate documents for her sister without charging any fee. The judicial conduct commission reviewed the conduct and concluded that the uncompensated assistance did not constitute improper reparation for judicial services because no payment changed hands and the work stayed within permitted family limits.
Roberto Reyes agreed that his employer would pay his defense lawyer's fees in a regulatory investigation. The lawyer obtained informed consent and confirmed that the arrangement created no interference with independent judgment. The payment functioned as reparation for the lawyer's services without violating professional conduct rules.
Rhea Reynolds suffered permanent back injuries when a delivery truck struck her car. The jury awarded a sum that covered medical expenses, lost wages, and pain. The award supplied reparation for the harm she sustained and restored her to the position she would have occupied absent the negligence.
Redwood Bank held an access easement across a parcel that had become landlocked after a highway rerouting. The court modified the easement route and required the servient owner to pay the bank a cash sum. The payment operated as reparation for the harm caused by the change in the original servitude purpose.
Reparation compensates the injured party for actual harm sustained. Punitive damages serve to punish and deter rather than to restore the victim.
Supporting sources
A court may require payment when a change in circumstances makes the original purpose impossible and the modification or termination would harm the beneficiaries. The payment offsets that resulting harm.
The Fifth Amendment requires just compensation only when private property is taken for public use. Other interferences may trigger due-process analysis but do not automatically demand reparation.
A lawyer may accept compensation from a third party only if the client gives informed consent, the arrangement does not interfere with professional judgment, and confidentiality is preserved.
…of the defendants' default and that they were the only loss actually sustained. The principle of damages is to render compensation to the injured party. Authorities and treatises were cited, including Sedgwick on the Measure of Damages, where the rule is stated that in contract cases damages may be those which both…