TRESPASS torts. An unlawful act committed with violence, ti et armis, to the
person, property or relative rights of another. Every felony includes a
trespass, in common parlance, such acts are not in general considered as
trespasses, yet they subject the offender to an action of trespass after his
conviction or acquittal. See civil remedy.
2. There is another kind of trespass, which is committed without force,
and is known by the name of trespass on the case. This is not generally
known by the name of trespass. See Case.
3. The following rules characterize the injuries which are denominated
trespasses, namely: 1. To determine whether an injury is a trespass, due
regard must be had to the nature of the right affected. A wrong with force
can only be offered to the absolute rights of personal liberty and security,
and to those of property corporeal; those of health, reputation and in
property incorporeal, together with the relative rights of persons, are,
strictly speaking, incapable of being injured with violence, because the
subject-matter to which they relate, exists in either case only in idea, and
is not to be seen or handled. An exception to this rule, however, often
obtains in the very instance of injuries to the relative rights of persons;
and wrongs offered to these last are frequently denominated trespasses, that
is, injuries with force.
4.-2. Those wrongs alone are characterized as trespasses the immediate
consequences of which are injurious to the plaintiff; if the damage
sustained is a remote consequence of the act, the injury falls under the
denomination of trespass on the case.
5.-3. No act is injurious but that which is unlawful; and therefore,
where the force applied to the plaintiff's property or person is the act of
the law itself, it constitutes no cause of complaint. Hamm. N. P. 34; 2
Phil. Ev. 131; Bac. Abr. h.t.; 15 East R. 614; Bouv. Inst. Index, h.t. As to
what will justify a trespass, see Battery.