Trespass

Any misfeasance or act of one man, whereby another is injuriously treated or damnified.

3 Bl. Comm. 208; 7 Conn. 125.

Any unlawful act committed with violence, actual or implied, to the person, property, or rights of another. Any unauthorized entry upon the realty of another, to the damage thereof. The word is used oftener in the last two somewhat restricted significations than in the first sense here given. In determining the nature of the act, neither the amount of violence or the intent with which it is offered, nor the extent of the damage accomplished or the purpose for which the act was committed, are of any importance; since a person who enters upon the land of another, in so doing, commits a trespass.

2 Humph. (Tenn.) 325; 6 Johns. (N. Y.) 5.

It is said that "some" damage must be committed to make an act a trespass. It is undoubtedly true that damage is required to constitute a trespass for which an action will lie; but, so far as the tort itself is concerned, it seems more than doubtful if the mere commission of an act affecting another, without legal authority, does not constitute trespass, though, until damage is done, the law will not regard it, inasmuch as the law does not regard trifles. The distinction between the different classes of trespass is of importance in determining the nature of the remedy. A trespass committed with force is said to be done "vi et armis;" one committed by entry upon the realty, "by breaking the close." In Practice. A form of action which lies to recover damages for the injury sustained by the plaintiff, as the immediate consequence of some wrong done forcibly to his person or property, against the person committing the same. Force is the essential of the action, and distinguishes it from "trespass on the case." TRESPASS DE BONIS ASPORTATIS (Lat. de bonis asportatis, for goods which have been carried away).

In practice

A form of action brought by the owner of goods to recover damages for unlawfully taking and carrying them away.

1 Me. 117.

It is no answer to the action that the defendant has returned the goods.

1 Bouv. Inst. note 36 (H).