Reeder v. Purdy

Citations

• 41 Ill. 279

Syllabus

<p>1. Trespass—when it will lie—right of the owner in fee of land, who is entitled to possession, to enter by force. The owner of real estate has a right to enter upon and enjoy his own property, if he can do so without a forcible disturbance of the possession of another.</p> <p>2. But, though the owner in fee be wrongfully kept out of possession, he I cannot, in this State, be permitted to enter against the will of the occupant./ The common law right to enter, and to use all necessary force to obtain pos] session from him who may wrongfully withhold it, has been taken away by our statute of forcible entry and detainer.</p> <p>3. That statute, not in terms, but by necessary construction, forbids a forcible entry, even by the owner, upon the actual possession of another. |</p> <p>4. Nor is the remedy afforded by the statute — an action for the recovery of the possession — the only remedy given to the party upon whom a forcible” 1 entry may be made by the owner. Under the statute, such an entry is unlaw- J ful; and being unlawful it is a trespass, and an action for the trespass will lie.</p> <p>5. Such an entry being forbidden by the statute, which has taken away the 1 common law right of forcible entry by the owner, it must be held illegal in ' all forms of action.</p> <p>6. And any entry is forcible, within the meaning of this law, that is made / against the will of the occupant.</p> <p>7. A landlord, however, has the right to enter upon the possession of his tenant for certain purposes, as to demand rent, or to make necessary repairs, and the action of trespass guare clausum by the tenant against the landlord, even for the recovery of nominal damages, is confined to those cases where an action of forcible entry and detainer will lie under our statute.</p> <p>8. Measure op damages — in trespass against the owner of land for a forcible entry thereon. Although the occupant of land may maintain trespass against the owner for a forcible entry, yet he can only recover su