Saunders v. Robinson
Saunders v. Robinson
Opinion of the Court
This suit was commenced by a summary process, by way of complaint before a justice of the peace, for forcible entry and detainer, on the Rev. Sts. c. 104, § 2. It comes before this court on exceptions to the directions of the court of common pleas, on a trial before that court; and the only question is, whether those directions were right.
The bill of exceptions, in the present case, shows the instructions of the court in matter of law, and enough of the evidence to show the application of those instructions. The court instructed the jury, that this summary process could not be maintained, in the absence of all relation of landlord and tenant, unless there was evidence of an actual forcible entry, or detainer, by violence, or threats of violence, or some act or threat of force, calculated to alarm the complainant or his agent, or deter him, from apprehension of forcible resistance ; and that there was no such evidence of force here, in taking or keeping possession, as would sustain the complaint. The former part of this direction we think was a precise and accurate statement of thd law of the case, adapted to enable the jury to pass upon the evidence, and all that the evidence in the case called for. A mere unlawful entry into lands, though it would justify the common averment of vi et armis, or force and arms, is not the forcible entry contemplated by the statute. It must be something more, either an original entry or subsequent detainer, with strong hand ; and this may be by the use of actual force and violence, or by menace of force, accompanied by arms tnd a manifest intent to carry such threat into effect, or by a sh jw of force, calculated to create terror and alarm, by an exhibit on of arms, a display of numbers, or other means manifesting an open and visible determination forcibly to make the entry, or "orcibly to resist the entry of another. These principles v ire
It was contended in the argument, that there was evidence, upon which the jury might have found that the relation of landlord and tenant existed. We can perceive no such evidence. It seems that the defendant entered when the premises were vacant, without and against the consent of the landlord or his agent, and that the latter, after he knew it, at every interview with her, expressed bis dissent, and required her xo leave the premises. But, if the complaint proceeded upon that branch of the statute — which does not appear—and if the plaintiff wished to submit it to the jury on that ground, he should have raised the point at the trial, and asket 2 direction of the court upon it. This point not having been taken at the trial, we think it cannot now be taken at the argument, upon evidence reported for another and distinct purpose.
Exceptions overruled.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Thomas Saunders v. Elizabeth Robinson
- Status
- Published