GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

11-11-2004, 10:39 PM

The message
from (Nick Maclaren) contains these words:

Even bigger sigh. No, Nick, you're wrong. "Every inch of the countryside
is owned by someone. It is trespass to go onto someone's land without
authority - which means either their permission or some legal right. But
the public are able to use large parts of the countryside, including
some commons, and all public rights of way and country parks.

[You and the Law. Ch 8.4 (Prof. Michael Furmston T.D., M.A., B.C.L.,
LL.M. & Dr. Vincent Powell-Smith LL.B., LL.M., D.Litt., F.C.I. Arb. -
Hamlyn)]

I am fully aware that the Little Texans among this poxious bunch of
land reivers that claim to be the government of the country have been
trying to revise history and the law, but that is complete nonsense
and always has been. Neither in Anglo-Saxon law nor Norman law do
people own land in the sense of property, but own rights to land.

Ah. I was forgetting the agenda. Try looking at Case Law.

You are NOT committing trespass if you enter someone's land without
permission if you are trying to contact that person, and have reasonable
grounds to do so.

I didn't even imply that you were. You're doing a
politician-being-interviewed act - answering the point you want to make,
not responding to the one made.

You do NOT have a right to access, and have to leave
if requested, but you cannot be sued for trespass. And there are MANY
other circumstances where you have no RIGHT of entry but have a RIGHT
not to be sued for trespass.

From the OED:

The OED is not a legal authority. Indeed, it is well out of step with
normal English usage, with its '-ize' constructions - however correct it
might be from descent from the Norman and Anglo-Saxon standards. ;-p

Trespass to land. A wrongful entry upon the lands of another, with
damage (however inconsiderable) to his real property.

In particular, look at the reference to Blackstone (a rather more
authoritative source than yours), which says "and doing some damage
(however inconsiderable) to his property".

Unfortunately I don't have Blackstone to hand - and on Dial-up, I'm not
wasting valuable online time looking it up.

Most of my other law textbooks are in store, or I'd shoot you down in flames.

Sorry. Trespass just means a wrong against someone, and entering
someone's land without lawful excuse is trespass.

Only in Texas. We haven't YET, QUITE been turned into Little Texas,
and there are those of us who will do our damnedest to stop you Little
Texans from doing it.

Ah, agendas again.

And, doing damage can be a criminal offence if it is done deliberately,
depending, I think, on the value of the damage done. Ever heard of
'Criminal Damage'?

Of course. If I had referred to that, I would have said so.

You did, and you said that doing damage was not a criminal offence.

Treapass by itself is actiuonable, but one who sues might expect to be
awarded a minute sum in damages, and it is unlikely that it would be
ordered that their costs be paid by the defendant.

And merely entering someone's land even WITHOUT reason is not actionable.
If you sue, and make NO attempt to claim for damage, you will lose and
have to pay costs. If that were not so, there would be far more
vindictive cases for trespass than there are.

With the threat of having to pay *ALL* the costs of the case, I find
that unlikely. (I wish I had Tony Weir's excellent casebook to hand -
ISTR that very point in case law.)

There is no law of Common Trespass in Scotland.

There is an equivalent - at least to the law in England, though not
to what you claim is the law.

No, there isn't. Trust me.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/