Definition
In simplum (Latin: "for the single value") is a civil law term designating a measure of liability or recovery equal to the simple or actual value of the thing at issue — that is, the straightforward, undoubled, unpenalized amount. It stands in contrast to recovery in duplum (double) or in quadruplum (fourfold), which Roman and civil law imposed as penalties in certain actions. When a defendant was liable in simplum, the plaintiff recovered no more than the equivalent of the actual loss — one times the value.
The term appears principally in the context of Roman law's classification of actions by their measure of recovery. Some actions were penal in character, yielding double or quadruple damages as punishment; others were purely reparatory, yielding only in simplum. The distinction determined not merely the quantum of recovery but the nature of the action itself — whether it sounded in penalty or in compensation.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encounter in simplum most often when working through Roman law sources, civil law treatises, or early common law texts that drew on civilian learning. The term is structural: understanding it requires knowing what it is contrasted against. A source that mentions in simplum recovery is implicitly signaling that the action in question is compensatory rather than penal — a distinction with significant doctrinal consequences in civilian systems.
In historical sources, particularly Bracton (which Burrill cites alongside the Institutes), the term appears in discussions borrowed heavily from Roman law. Bracton's use does not always map cleanly onto later English common law categories, so researchers should be cautious about projecting in simplum/in duplum distinctions into purely common law contexts without verifying that the source is actually operating in civilian mode.
For researchers tracing the history of punitive or exemplary damages, in simplum is the baseline from which the discussion of multiplied damages departs. Sources contrasting penal actions (in duplum, in triplum, in quadruplum) with compensatory ones implicitly invoke in simplum as the norm.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the essential gloss: "for the simple or single value," citing Justinian's Institutes (4.6.22) and Bracton (fol. 103). This is a spare but accurate entry. The Institutes passage concerns the classification of actions by their penal character, and Bracton's citation reflects his characteristic borrowing of Roman law categories into his treatment of English legal actions.
What Burrill does not elaborate — and what researchers should supply from context — is that in simplum is not an action type in itself but a measure of recovery that characterizes certain actions. The term's significance is almost always relational: it means something primarily because in duplum and in quadruplum mean something more. Historical dictionaries generally treat it briefly because it is a modifying concept rather than a standalone doctrine.
Jurisdictional Note
In simplum is a term of Roman and civil law with no direct analog in modern common law jurisdictions. It retains relevance in Louisiana, Quebec, Scotland, and other mixed or civil law systems where Roman law categories remain part of the doctrinal vocabulary, and in any jurisdiction whose courts or scholars engage with civilian sources in the interpretation of remedies.