No man is bound to have foreknowledge of a Divine or a future event.

Explanation

(English-origin maxim.) No person can be held liable for failing to foresee an act of God or an unforeseeable future event — invoke this to defeat a negligence claim premised on the expectation of superhuman foresight.

Where this applies

• A farmer is sued for negligence after a once-in-a-century flood destroys a neighbor's crops that were stored on the farmer's property; the court holds no one can be expected to foresee an act of God.
• A building collapses during a freak earthquake in a region with no seismic history; the architect is not liable because no one is bound to predict a divine or unforeseeable natural event.
• An insurer tries to deny a claim by arguing the policyholder should have anticipated a meteorite strike; the court rejects this because the law does not require foreknowledge of future catastrophes.