Trespass

TRESPASS, in law, any transgression of the law less than treason, felony or misprision of either. The term includes a great variety of wrongs committed to land, goods or person. Up to 1694 the trespasser was regarded, nominally at any rate, as a criminal, and was liable to a fine for the breach of the peace, commuted for a small sum of money, for which 5 Will. and Mar.

c.

12 (1693) substituted a fee of 6s.8d. recoverable as costs against the defendant. Trespass is not now criminal except by special statutory enactment, e.g., the old statutes against forcible entry, the game acts, and the private acts of many railway com panies. When, however, trespass is carried sufficiently far it may become criminal, and be prosecuted as assault if to the person, as nuisance if to the land. At one time an important distinction was drawn between trespass general and trespass special or tres pass on the case, for which see TORT.

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 most minute invasion

of private right is trespass. In addition to damages for trespass, an injunction may be granted by the court.

Trespass may be justified by exercise of a legal right, as to serve the process of the law, or by invitation or licence of the owner, or may be excused by accident or inevitable necessity, as deviation from a highway out of repair.

In Scots law trespass is used only for torts to land. By the Trespass (Scotland) Act 1865 trespassers are liable on summary conviction to fine and imprisonment for encamping, lighting fires, etc., on land without the consent and permission of the owner.

In the United States, common law doctrines as to trespass hold in most of the States. It means, more particularly, an injury to the person, property or rights cf another, as the immediate re sult of a wrongful act committed with actual or implied force. The statutes have provided for criminal trespass in many States, but not to the extent as existed prior to 1694 in England. Tres pass on the realty of another often is a criminal offence, through statutory enactment in the States.