Act of God

In legal usage in the English-speaking world, an act of God, act of nature, or damnum fatale is an event caused by no direct human action for which individual persons are not responsible and cannot be held legally liable for loss of life, injury, or property damage. An act of God may amount to an exception to liability in contracts, or it may be an "insured peril" in an insurance policy. In Scots law, the equivalent term is damnum fatale, while most common law legal systems use the term act of God. It is legally distinct from—though often related to—a common clause found in contract law known as force majeure.