Trespass in Europe

Definition of Trespass

To pass beyond. A trespass is a wrong. The action of trespass became common at the time of Edward I, amd was in the nature of a criminal proceeding : the Court punished the defendant as well as compensated the plaintiff. Maitland called it ” that fertile mother of actions.” It developed into the misdemeanour (q.v.), and by way of its extension, the action of trespass on the case, it gave rise to many of the doctrines of the common law. Where an injury was immediate, trespass would lie ; where it was consequential, an action on the case.
The chief varieties of trespass originally were : (1) Trespass vi et armis (”with force and arm”): injuries to the person accompanied with actual force or violence, as in the case of battery and imprisonment, and the forcible entry on another man’s land. (2) Trespass quare clausum fregit, ” because he [the defendant] broke or entered into the close” or land of the plaintiff, without lawful authority. (3) Trespass de bonis asportatis : the wrongful taking of chattels. See Action on the Case; Harrison v. Duke of Rutland; Bird v. Jfolbrook

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Definition of Trespass is, temporally, from A Concise Law Dictionary (1927). This page needs to be proofread.

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