Trespassing

“ If huntsmen when following the hounds are permitted, not only to trespass, but to damage crops and fences, why should the naturalist be molested when harmlessly following his own inclinations in choice of a country ramble. Is the pursuit of the fox a surer proof of honest intentions than the pursuit of natural history? It appears that some landowners think so. "Trespassers will be prosecuted," say the notices that everywhere stare us in the face.
Was there ever such a lying legend? Trespassers will not be prosecuted, for the sufficient reason that in English law trespassing is not an offence. ”

“ In respect to the trespass itself, damages can be recovered in an action, but the trespasser cannot be prosecuted unless he was trespassing in pursuit of game, or has wilfully or maliciously done any injury to property. ”

“ On one well-remembered occasion during the shooting season, when trespassing afoot across some moors in search of a short cut, I came suddenly upon the owner of the land with his party lunching; the owner was inclined to be indignant with me at first, but an apology for my inexcusable trespass quietly expressed was followed by a few minutes’ conversation, which ended in my being invited to join the lunching party, no refusal being permitted. ”

“ Speaking of trespassing, I am reminded of a story which reveals how ready-witted the rural inhabitants can sometimes be. One day, many years ago, Willie Craig, a Perthshire village worthy, found himself in the near vicinity of Scone Palace, and by cutting through the woods there he would reach his destination much sooner than by holding to the public road. The old Earl of Mansfield could never distinguish between a trespasser and a poacher, and Willie knew this, and that if he was seen he would, at the very least, be turned back. ”

“ We had just commenced the third course—the bread and jam—when a gentleman in shirt-sleeves and a short pipe came along, and wanted to know if we knew that we were trespassing. We said we hadn’t given the matter sufficient consideration as yet to enable us to arrive at a definite conclusion on that point, but that, if he assured us on his word as a gentleman that we were trespassing, we would, without further hesitation, believe it. ”

“ The fine for trespassing on a man's land is $40.00 and it is the duty of the game warden to arrest any one he finds hunting, trapping or fishing on any man's land without a written permit. Here is the worst of all. The game warden must make the arrest without any notice from the land owner and if the game warden fails to make the arrest, he is liable to the same fine as the one who is doing the trespassing. ”

“ And yet I reiterate my former adjective; good-looking he was; good-looking in a healthy, frank, [13] happy and rather boyish way that was eminently satisfying.
If the sign on the old willow was right, and he really was trespassing, I have no excuse to offer, or at least none that my conscience will allow me to suggest. I can’t plead ignorance for him, for the simple reason that he had seen the sign and read it and that he knew all about trespass—or as much as was taught in the three-year course at the Harvard Law School, which he had finished barely a fortnight ago. ”

“ There will not be any ‘no trespassing’ signs put up for you all. You can gather anything you want, berries, nuts, flowers, anything that grows on the property, even to a part of my share of the crops. ”

“ Of trespassers the number killed per mile of line is about as large in England as in America, the density of population and of traffic in Great Britain apparently counterbalancing the laxity of the laws against trespassing in America. In the thickly settled parts of the United States the number of trespassers killed on the railway tracks, including vagrants who suffer in collisions and derailments while stealing rides, is very large. ”

“ As I understand the law, when a man has placed his cattle in a field it is his duty to keep them from trespassing on the land of his neighbors, but while he is driving them upon a highway he is not responsible, without proof of negligence 409on his part, for any injury they may do upon the highway, for they cannot then be said to be trespassing. ”

“ Each individual has its own particular territory, embracing a piece of open water as well as a part of the rush-covered fringe, within which it moves and lives. But in the early part of the season, when the territories are still in process of being established, and definiteness has still to be acquired, trespassing is of frequent occurrence, and the conflicts are often conspicuous for their severity. ”

“ One having in his possession agricultural or mechanical tools is not responsible for injuries caused to trespassers by careless handling, nor is the owner of a fruit-tree bound to cut it down or enclose it, or to exercise care in securing the staple and lock with which his ladder is fastened, for the protection of trespassing boys who may be attracted by the 173fruit. ”

“ Trespass, tres′pas, v.i. to pass over a limit or boundary: to enter unlawfully upon another's land: to inconvenience by importunity: to intrude: to injure or annoy another: to sin.—n. act of trespassing: any injury to another's person or property: a sin.—ns. Tres′passer; Tres′pass-off′ering, an offering in expiation of a trespass or sin (See Lev. xiv. 12-18) . [O. Fr. trespasser (Fr. trépasser) —L. trans, across, passāre, to pass.]
Tress, tres, n. a lock or curl of hair: a ringlet (esp. in pl.) ”

“ The animals must also be protected against poaching and free trapping. It is a good idea to post signs of warning against trespassing on the premises. There should not be much trouble on this point, however, because people, as a whole, respect the property and rights of their fellow men. ”

“ There’s a right of way across the park—some distance away, but all this is the private part. You’re trespassing.”
“I am most sorry,” said the stranger. “I lost my direction entirely. I thought I would come up here and inquire.” ”

“ Neither is the owner or occupant of premises upon which there is a natural or artificial pond, or a blueberry pasture, legally required to exercise care in securing his gates and bars to guard against accidents to straying and trespassing children. ”

“ And he's got a stake set in the middle of that piece of ground and on that stake is a board and on that board is painted: 'Trespassing Forbidden on Penalty of the Law.' And him and that woman, by Alcander Reeves's advice, are teaming that old cuss of a husband back and forth acrost that strip and markin' down a trespass offence every time he lugs an armful of wood. ”

“ At present, in this vicinity, the best part of the land is not private property; the landscape is not owned, and the walker enjoys comparative freedom. But possibly the day will come when it will be partitioned off into so-called pleasure grounds, in which a few will take a narrow and exclusive pleasure only,—when fences shall be multiplied, and man traps and other engines invented to confine men to the public road, and walking over the surface of God’s earth shall be construed to mean trespassing on some gentleman’s grounds. ”

“ If possible, a road should run right across the plot, with a gateway on either side, so that a cart might pass straight through, pick up its load, and go on and out without turning. Each plot should have a frontage upon this road, or to branch roads running at right angles to it, so that each tenant could remove his produce without trespassing upon the plot of his neighbour. Such trespasses often lead to much ill-will. The narrow paths dividing these strips should be sufficiently wide to allow of wheeling a barrow down them, and should on no account be permitted to be overgrown with grass. ”

“ That at common law, every man was bound to keep his cattle within his own close, under the penalty of answering in damage for all injuries 411arising from their being abroad, is admitted by all. And a part of the same rule is, that the owner of land is not bound to protect his premises from the intrusion of the cattle of a stranger, or third person; and that if such cattle shall intrude or trespass upon his premises, whether inclosed or not, he may, at his election, bring his action to recover the damages sustained, or distrain such trespassing animals, until compensated for such injury. ”

“ Every unwarrantable entry on another’s soil the law entitles a trespass by breaking his close; the words of the writ of trespass commanding the defendant to shew cause, quare clausum querentis fregit. For every man’s land is in the eye of the law inclosed and set apart from his neighbour’s: and that either by a visible and material fence, as one field is divided from another by a hedge; or, by an ideal invisible boundary, existing only in the contemplation of law, as when one man’s land adjoins to another’s in the same field. ”

“ If the acts be committed by the one out of possession, he can always successfully defend an action of trespass by showing that the land is his. If the acts be committed by the one who is in possession, the one out of possession has no remedy at law, except an action of ejectment to recover the land itself. If he succeed in ejectment, and recover possession of the land, the other’s acts will then (but not till then) become trespasses by relation, and damages may be recovered for them. ”

“ Trespassers will not be prosecuted, provided that they do no sort of damage, and that if their presence is objected to they politely retire. With these slight precautions and limitations, a trespasser may go where he will, and enjoy the study of Nature in her most secluded and "strictly private" recesses. He thus himself becomes, in one sense, a lord of the soil; but his domain is far more extensive and unencumbered than that of any actual landlord. He enjoys all that is best in park, woodland, or mountain ”

“ It might be that the owner of the horse could not have one of the old writs, because the horse was not in his possession when the damage was done. A strict trespass property could only be committed against the person in possession of it. It could not be committed by one who was in possession himself. /1/ But as laming the horse was equally a wrong, whether the owner held the horse by the bridle or left it with the smith, and as the wrong was closely analogous to a trespass, although not one, the law gave the owner a writ of trespass on the case. ”

“ In all Trespasses or damages done to any man or men, If it can be proved to be done by the meere default of him or them to whome the trespasse is done, It shall be judged no trespasse, nor any damage given for it. ”

“ But if the trespasser is an old offender, who from the beginning has broken fences, ruined trees, and trampled down the garden, and now defiantly comes upon the field of grass, insisting upon absolute ownership, then it is vain to set up the apology that very little damage is done. The antecedent transgressions, ending in claim of title, enter into the present trespass, and make it a question whether the rightful owner or the trespasser shall hold possession. Here the rightful owner is the people of the United States, and the trespasser is Andrew Johnson. ”

“ We know of no state which, as does the Struthers ordinance in effect, makes a person a criminal trespasser if he enters the property of another for an innocent purpose without an explicit command from the owners to stay away. The National Institute of Municipal Law Officers has proposed a form of regulation to its member cities which would make it an offense for any person to ring the bell of a householder who has appropriately indicated that he is unwilling to be disturbed. ”

“ Will was peering about, and, as the party made ready to start for the cabins, the lumbermen going back to their fishing, Grace's brother said:
"Unless I'm mistaken this trap is on dad's land, which means that that Jallow crowd must have trespassed here to set it. Take a look, Allen, and see if the boundary line doesn't bring the trap on this side."
"It certainly does," declared the young lawyer. "They were trespassers, all right." ”

“ In some cases of nuisance, and in some cases of trespass, the law permits an individual to abate the one and prevent the other by force, because such permission is necessary to the complete protection of property and person. ”

“ In its more restricted sense trespass is generally used for entry on land without lawful authority by either a man, his servants or his cattle. To maintain an action for such trespass the plaintiff must have possession of the premises. The quantum of possession necessary to enable him to bring the action is often a question difficult to decide. In most instances the tenant can bring trespass, the reversioner only case. Remedies for trespass are either judicial or extra-judicial. The most minute invasion of private right is trespass, though the damages may be nominal if the injury was trivial. ”

“ The European, or the American, or the Australasian, goes on Sunday to his church and says his formula, ‘Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,’ and then on the Monday morning prosecutes a boy who stole a ball of string, or a neighbour who has invaded a right of way, or an enemy whose cow has strayed, or whose horse has kicked, or whose dog has bitten, and exacts for one and all of these offences the uttermost penalty that the law will permit him to demand. ”

“ Take first the case of trespass upon land attended by actual damage. When a man goes upon his neighbor's land, thinking it is his own, he intends the very act or consequence complained of. He means to intermeddle with a certain thing in a certain way, and it is just that intended intermeddling for which he is sued. /1/ Whereas, if he accidentally hits a stranger as he lifts his staff in self defence, the fact, which is the gist of the action,—namely, the contact between the staff and his neighbor's head,—was not intended, and could not have been foreseen. ”