Trespass to land Flashcards
What are the four essential elements of tresspass
There is direct interference with the land
The interference is voluntary
No need for the defendant to be aware he/she is trespassing
No need for the claimant to experience harm or loss.
Define a trespass to land
Trespass to land can be defined as the unjustifiable voluntary direct interference with land which is in the immediate and exclusive possession of another.
What is meant by a ‘direct interference’ with someone’s land
Direct interference with land could be physical entry to the land, throwing something onto the land or, if given the right to enter the land remaining there after the right has been withdrawn.
For instance, if a person plants a tree and it overhangs a neighbouring property, it is indirect interference and more likely to be a private nuisance and not trespass.
However, if a person cuts down a tree and throws the cut branches into his or her neighbour’s garden, then it is direct interference and is likely to be a trespass.
What is the key caselaw for direct interference?
Southport Corporation v Esso Petroleum (oil boat into someone’s lake)
What is meant by ‘Voluntary interference with land’
It can only be trespass to land if the person has voluntarily entered the land.
Stone vs Smith
Elaborate on the third element that awareness of trespass is not needed
An innocent trespass is still a trespass. Mistake is no defence in trespass.
In Conway v Wimpey & Co [1951] it was held by the Court of Appeal that a person could be liable for trespass even if he is mistaken about the ownership of land or wrongly believes he or she has permission to enter the land.
Elaborate on the third element that there is no need for the claimant to experience harm or loss
quite self-explanatory
they do not need to experience any harm of the trespass for their to be liability on the defendant
What is the law on airspace trespass
there is a latin phrase for who owns the land, owns to the heavens and down to hell’.
Meaning if someone owns land they own all the land above and below
What are the three main defences to trespass to land?
Legal authority (or justification by law)
Consent (sometimes referred to as licence) including contractual licence
Necessity.
Describe the defence of legal authority
A person is not liable for trespass if he/she has legal authority permitting them to be on that land. For example:
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 gives constables certain rights to enter land to make arrests and to search premises.
Describe the defence of consent
A licence to enter land can be received with either the express of implied consent of the person possessing the land.
Implied consent can be given in a number of ways. For instance, at the front of my house is a pathway to my front door which has a letterbox and a doorbell.
A contractual licence to enter land covers situations when a purchaser receives permission to be on land as part of a purchase. For instance, a cinema ticket.
A person becomes a trespasser once express or implied permission is withdrawn or if a person exceeds the limits of the permission. The defence or consent (or licence) can no longer be used once permission is withdrawn. For instance, although there may be implied permission for someone to come to my front door and deliver a letter, there is no implied permission for that person to come into my back garden or enter my property.
Wood v Leadbitter (1845)
Describe the defence of Neccecity
Necessity has two forms: private and public necessity.
Private necessity would involve an act needed to protect your own property against the threat of harm.
Public necessity would involve an act to protect the wider public against harm.
The general rule seems to be that there must be an actual danger and the acts of the defendant must be reasonable in the light of all the facts.
Rigby v CC of Northamptonshire
What are the two types of criminal law trespass
Aggravated Trespass
Offence of Squatting in a Residential Building
What is required for someone to found guilty of an aggravated trespass.
An aggravated trespass is once someone has trespassed, they then go onto intimidate those persons or any of them so as to deter them or any of them from engaging in that activity, obstructing or of disrupting that activity going on in the area they are trespassing.
What is required for someone to be liable for squatting
the person is in a residential building as a trespasser having entered it as a trespasser,
the person knows or ought to know that he or she is a trespasser, and
the person is living in the building or intends to live there for any period.
