BREACH OE CLOSE is a trespass by which an unwarrantable entry is made on another man's land, for satisfaction of which injury an action will lie to recover damages. It is called a trespass for breaking a man's clime, because every man's land is, in the eye of the law, inclosed and set apart 'froru hi, nelslibOr'S; and that either by a visible and material fence, as one field is divided from another by a hedge; or by an invisible boundary, existing only in the contemplation of the law, as when one man's land adjoins to another's iu the same field. The liability to this injury attaches not only to the party himself trespassing, but also to trespass by his cattle. And the law gives the party injured a double remedy in this case, by permitting him to distrain the cattle till the owner shall make satisfaction, or else by leaving him to the ordinary remedy by action for the damage done.
But in some cases this trespass is justifiable; as where it is done in exercise of a right of way, right of common, or the like; or where a man comes to demand or pay money payable on the particular land; or to execute, in a legal manner, the process of the law; or by the license of the plaintiff himself. Also, a man may justify into an inn or public-house without the leave of the owner first specially asked; because when a man professes the keeping of such an inn or public-house, he thereby gives a general license to any person to enter his doors. So a landlord may justify entering to distrain for rent; and a reversioner to see if any waste be committed on the estate, for the apparent necessity of the thing; and it has been held that the common law warrants the hunting of ravenous beasts of prey, as badgers and foxes, in another man's land, if no greater damage be done than is necessary, because the de stroying such creatures is said to be profitable to the public. But in cases where a man
inisdemeans himself, or makes an ill use of the authority with which the law incrusts him, he is accounted a trespasser ab initio; as if one comes into a tavern, and will not go out in a reasonable time, but remains there all night, contrary to the inclinations of the owner; such wrongful act is held to affect and have relation back even to his first entry, and make the whole a trespass. But a bare nonfeasance, as not paying for the wine he calls for, will not make him a trespasser, for this is only a B. of contract. See Blackstone and Stephen's Com. respecting "civil injuries." In the Scotch law, the term dose is not used, and not known—but there any vio lation of a right of property in land may be redressed by legal process, and in many cases form the ground of an action for the recovery of damages. See CLOSE. The term inclosure, in Scotch law, has a different meaning, although the penalties for break ing such inclosure are somewhat analogous to those for breach of close. See below,