FORCHEAPUM. Pre-emption. Blount. FORCIBLE ENTRY OR ER. A forcible entry or detainer consists in violently taking or keeping possession of lands, or tenements, by means of threats, force, or arms, and without authority of law. Comyns, Dig. ; Gabbett, Crim. Law.
2. To make an entry forcible, there must be such acts of violence, or such threats, menaces, or gestures, as may give reason to apprehend personal injury or danger in stand ing in defence of the possession. But the force made use of must be more than is im plied in any mere trespass. 8 Term, 357 ; 10 Mass. 409 1 Add. Penn. 14 ; Taylor, Land'. & Ten. 7 86.
Proceedings in case of a forcible entry or detainer are regulated by the statutes of the several states, and relate to a•restitution of the property, if the individual who complains has been dispossessed, as well as to the pun ishment of the offendei for a breach of the public peace. And the plea of ownership is no justification for the party complained of; for no man may enter even upon his own lands in any other than a peaceable manner.
Nor will he be excused if he entered to make a distress or to enforce a lawful claim, nor if pOssession was ultimately obtained by en treaty. 3 Mass. 215 ; 1 Dev. & B. No. C. 324 ; 8 Litt. Ky. 184 ; 8 Term, 361.
3. Upon an indictment for this offence at common law, the entry must appear to have been accompanied by a public breach of the peace ; and, upon a conviction for either a forcible entry or detainer, the court will award restitution of the premises in the same manner as a judge in a civil court, under a statutory proceeding, is authorized to do upon a verdict rendered before him. 1 Ld. Raym. 512; 8 Term, 360 ; Hawkins, PT. Cr. b. 1, c. 64, 45 ' • Croke Jac. 151 ; Al. 50 ; Taylor, Landl. & Ten. 794.