Odger's English Common Law

Chapter IV.
TRESPASS TO LAND.
Any direct physical interference with, the person of another
or with any real or personal property in the possession of
another, without his consent or other lawful authority is a
trespass, if the act was done intentionally or was the result
of negligence. 1 To be a trespass, the defendant's act must be
a direct and immediate invasion of a private right of the
plaintiff's. Thus, any wrongful entry upon the land of
another, or any immediate physical interference with the
possession of such land, is a trespass to land.
Any wrongful act which directly disturbs any one in his
lawful possession of goods, however slight or temporary such
disturbance may be, is a trespass to goods. Any direct
interference with the liberty or person of another, if it be
either intentional or the result of negligence, is a trespass to
the person. 1
These three kinds of trespass will be separately
discussed in this and the two following chapters.
Any one who is in lawful occupation of land is entitled to
the exclusive use and possession of it ; and any intrusion
upon the premises which interferes with his enjoyment of
them is a trespass. A trespass may be in its nature contin-
uous or perpetually recurring, as where a man continues
illegally in the dwelling-house of another after a forcible
entry into it, or where he walks or rides daily across the
field of another. " Every continuation of a trespass is a fresh
trespass." 2
It is not necessary in every case in which a trespass to land
has been committed for the occupier of the land to take legal
1 See Holmes v. Mather (1876), L. R. 10 Ex. 261 ; Stanley v. Powell, [1891]
1 Q B. 86.
2 Per Parke, B., in Percival v. Stamp (1863), 9 Exoh. at p. 174.