• ‘De minimis’ is a term used by courts when a trespass is too small or insignificant to be legally actionable.
• The 3LP employs this concept to avoid legal action when a violation of the Legal Principle is too minor or insignificant to be properly actionable in court.
• Faint smells, minor noises, and dim lights from a neighbor in a close residential community would all be considered de minimis. While each of these is technically a trespass and violates the Legal Principle, we do not treat them as trespasses because they are generally below the threshold of concern held by reasonable people in a community; these minor trespasses are the expected consequences of living in the world.
• While competent adults remain free to contract otherwise, deeming these trespasses de minimis (ignoring them) is the proper course of action. However, reasonable minds can disagree on when to deem a trespass de minimis. As such, the 3LP delegates the reasonable resolution of these issues to local communities.