DETAINER. Detention. The act of keep ing a person against his will, or of with holding the possession of goods or other per sonal or real property from the owner.
Detainer and detention are very neariy synony mous. If there be any distinction, it is perhaps that detention applies rather to the act considered as a fact, detainer to the act considered as some thing done by some person. Detainer is more fre quently used with reference to real estate than is application to personal property.
All illegal detainers of the person amount to false imprisonment, and may be reme died by habeas corpus. Hurd, Hab. Corp. 209.
A detainer or detention of goods is either lawful or unlawful ; when lawful, the party having possession of them cannot be de prived of it. It is legal when the party has a right to the property, and has come lawful L ly into possession. It is illegal when the taking was unlawful, as in the case of forci ble entry and detainer, although the party may have a right of possession; but in some cases the detention may be lawful, although the taking may have been unlawful; Moore v. Shenk, 3 Pa. 20, 45 Am. Dec. 618. So also the detention may be unlawful although the original taking was lawful: as when goods were distrained for rent, and the rent was afterwards paid ; or when they were pledg ed, and the money borrowed and interest was afterwards paid ; or if one borrow a horse, to ride from A to B, and afterwards detain him' from the owner, after demand, such detention is unlawful, and the owner may either retake his property, or have an action of replevin or detinue; 1 Chit. Pr.
135. In these and many other like cases the owner should make a demand, and, if the possessor refuses to restore them, trover, detinue, or replevin will lie, at the option of the plaintiff. In some cases the detention becomes criminal although the taking was lawful, as in embezzlement.
There may also be a detainer of land; and this is either lawful and peaceable, or unlawful and forcible. The detainer is lawful where the entry has been lawful and the estate is held by virtue of some right. It is unlawful and forcible where the entry has been unlawful and with force, and it is retained by force against right; or even where the entry has been peaceable and lawful, if the detainer be by force and against right ; as, if a tenant at will should detain with force after the will has deter mined, he will be guilty of a forcible de tainer; 2 Chitt. Pr. 238; Com. Dig. Detain er, B 2; People v. Rickert, 8 Cow. (N. Y.) 226; People v. Anthony, 4 Johns. (N. ,Y.) 198; Carpenter v. Shepherd, 4 Bibb (Ky.) 501. See Ladd v. Dubroca, 45 Ala. 421; May v. Lockett, 54 Mo. 437; Doty v. Burdick, 83 Ill. 473. A forcible detainer is a distinct of fence from a forcible entry ; People v. Rick ert, 8 Cow. (N. Y.) 226. See FORCIBLE EN