Detainer

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Detainer \De*tain"er\ (-[~e]r), n.
     1. One who detains.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Law)
        (a) The keeping possession of what belongs to another;


            detention of what is another's, even though the
            original taking may have been lawful. Forcible
            detainer is indictable at common law.
        (b) A writ authorizing the keeper of a prison to continue
            to keep a person in custody.
            [1913 Webster]

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  DETAINER. 1. The act of keeping a person against his will, or of keeping 
  goods or property. All illegal detainers of the person amount to false 
  imprisonment, and may be remedied by habeas corpus. 
       2.-2. A detainer or detention of goods is either lawful or unlawful; 
  when lawful, the party having possession of them cannot be deprived of it. 
  The detention may be unlawful, although the original taking was lawful; as 
  when goods were distrained for rent, and the rent was afterwards paid; or 
  when they 'Were pledged, and the money borrowed, and interest were 
  afterwards paid; in these, and the like cases, the owner should make a 
  demand, (q.v.) and if the possessor refuse to restore them, trover, 
  detinue, or replevin will lie, at the option of the plaintiff. 
       3.-3. There may also be a detainer of land and this is either lawful 
  and peaceable, or unlawful and forcible. 1. The detainer is lawful where the 
  entry has been lawful, and the estate is held by virtue of some right. 2. It 
  is unlawful and forcible, where the entry has been unlawful, and with force, 
  and it is retained, by force, against right; or even when the entry has been 
  peaceable and lawful, if the detainer be by force, and against right; as, if 
  a tenant at will should detain with force, after the will has determined, he 
  will be guilty of a forcible detainer. Hawk. P. C. ch. 64, s. 22; 2 Chit. 
  Pr. 288; Com. Dig, B. 2; 8 Cowen, 216; 1 Hall, 240; 4 John. 198; 4 Bibb, 
  501. A forcible detainer is a distinct offence from a forcible entry. 8 
  Cowen, 216. See Forcible entry and detainer. 
       4.-4. A writ or instrument, issued or made by a competent officer, 
  authorizing the keeper of a prison to keep in his custody a person therein 
  named. A detainer may be lodged against. one within the walls of a prison, 
  on what account soever he is there. Com. Dig. Process, E 3 b.