TRESPASS1 torts. An unlawful act committed with violence, ti et armis, to the person, property or relative rights of another. Every felony includes a tres-pass, in common parlance2, such acts are not in general considered as tres-passes, yet they subject the offender3 to an action of trespass after his conviction or acquittal. See civil remedy.
2. There is another kind of trespass, which is committed without force, and is known by the name of trespass on the case. This is not generally known by the name of trespass. See Case.
3. The following rules characterize the injuries which are denominated tres-passes, namely: 1. To determine whether an injury is a trespass, due regard must be had to the nature of the right affected4. A wrong with force can only be offered to the absolute rights of personal liberty and security, and to those of property corporeal5; those of health, reputation and in property incorporeal6, together with the relative rights of persons, are, strictly7 speaking, incapable8 of being injured with violence, because the subject-matter to which they relate, exists in either case only in idea, and is not to be seen or handled. An exception to this rule, however, often obtains in the very instance of injuries to the relative rights of persons; and wrongs offered to these last are frequently denominated trespasses9, that is, injuries with force.
4. - 2. Those wrongs alone are characterized as trespasses the immediate10 consequences of which are injurious to the plaintiff; if the damage sustained is a remote consequence of the act, the injury falls under the denomination11 of trespass on the case.
5. - 3. No act is injurious but that which is unlawful; and therefore, where the force applied12 to the plaintiff's property or person is the act of the law itself, it constitutes no cause of complaint. Hamm. N. P. 34; 2 Pbil. Ev. 131; Bac. Abr. h. t.; 15 East R. 614; Bouv. Inst. Index, h. t. As to what will justify13 a trespass, see Battery.
