Mesne Profits

The value of land during the period of a wrongful possession thereof; that is to say, from the time of wrongful entry to dispossession. 3 Bl. Comm. 205. The net rental value or value of the use and occupation of premises during the period of a wrongful occupation. 101 N. Y. 13.

The value of the premises recovered in ejectment, during the time that the lessor of the plaintiff has been illegally kept out of the possession of his estate by the defendant: such are properly recovered by an action of trespass, quare clausum fregit, after a recovery in ejectment Osbourn v. Osbourn, 11 S. & R. (Pa.) 65; Bacon, Abr. Ejectment (H); 3 Bla. Com. 205. As a general rule, the plaintiff is entitled to recover for such time as he can prove the defendant to have been in possession, provided he does not go back beyond six years; for in that case the defendant may plead the statute of limitations; Hare v. Fury, 3 Yeates (Pa.) 13, 2 Am. Dec. 358; Bull. N. P. 88. The value of the use of land during the time it was unlawfully detained by a lessee is the proper measure of lessor’s damages; Roach V. Heflfernan, 66 Vt 485, 27 Atl. 71. In an action to recover mesne profits, plaintiff may either prove the profits actually received, or the -annual rental value of the land; Worthington v. Hiss, 70 Md. 172, 16 Ati. 634, 17 Atl. 1026. Defendant in ejectment cannot free himself from liability for M. R. Co. V. Lewis, 68 Miss. 29, 10 South. 32. Exemplary damages are allowed in trespass for mesne profits, only when the defendant has acted maliciously or in bad faith; Herreshoff v. Tripp, 15 R. I. 92, 23 Atl. 104. The value of improvements made by the defendant may be set off against a claim for mesne profits; Wood. L. & T. 1390; but profits before the demise laid should be first deducted from the value of the improvements; Hylton V. Brown, 2 Wash. C. C. 165, Fed. Cas. No. 6,983. See, generally. Wash. R. P.; Bacon, Abr. Ejectment (H); 2 Phill. Ev. 208; Adams, EJ. 13.

Intermediate profits; that is, profits which have been accruing between two given periods. Thus, after a party has recovered the land itself in an action of ejectment, he frequently brings another action for the purpose of recovering the profits which have been accruing or arising Out of the land between the time when his title to the possession accrued or was raised and the lime of his recovery in the action of ejectment, and such an action is thence termed an "action for mesne profits." Brown.

Defined under Profits in Black's Law Dictionary.