Damnification

That which causes a loss or damage to a society, or to one who has indemnified another. For example, when a society has entered into an obligation to pay the debt of the principal, and the principal has become bound in a bond to indemuify the surety, the latter has suffered a damnification the moment he becomes liable to be sued for the debt of the principal - and it has been held in an action brought by the surety, upon a bond of indemnity, that the terror of suit, so that the surety dare not go about his business, is a damnification.

A judgment fairly obtained against a party for a cause against which another person is bound to indemnify him, with timely notice to that person of the bringing of the action, is admissible as evidence in an action brought against the guarantor on the indemnity.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.