Ejectment

2 definitions found

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

  Ejectment \E*ject"ment\, n.
     1. A casting out; a dispossession; an expulsion; ejection;
        as, the ejectment of tenants from their homes.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Law) A species of mixed action, which lies for the


        recovery of possession of real property, and damages and
        costs for the wrongful withholding of it. --Wharton.
        [1913 Webster]

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

  EJECTMENT, remedies. The name of an action which lies for the recovery of 
  the possession of real property, and of damages for the unlawful detention. 
  In its nature it is entirely different from a real action. 2 Term Rep; 696, 
  700. See 17 S. & R. 187, and, authorities cited. 
       2. This subject may be considered with reference, 1st. To the form of 
  the, proceedings. 2d. To the nature of the property or thing to be 
  recovered. 3d. To the right to such property. 4th. To the nature of the 
  ouster or injury. 5th. To the judgment. 
       3.-1. In the English practice, which is still adhered to in some 
  states, in order to lay the foundation of this action, the party claiming 
  title enters upon the land, and then gives a lease of it to a third person, 
  who, being ejected by the other claimant, or some one else for him, brings a 
  suit against, the ejector in his own name; to sustain the action the lessee 
  must prove a good title in the lessor, and, in this collateral way, the 
  title is tried. To obviate the difficulty of proving these forms, this 
  action has been made, substantially, a fictitious process. The defendant 
  agrees, and is required to confess that a lease was made to the plaintiff, 
  that he entered under it, and has been ousted by the defendant, or, in other 
  words, to admit lease, entry, and ouster, and that he will rely only upon 
  his title. An actual entry, however, is still supposed, and therefore, an 
  ejectment will not lie, if the right of entry is gone. 3 Bl. Com. 199 to 
  206. In Pennsylvania, New York, Arkansas, and perhaps other states, these 
  fictions have all been abolished, and the writ of ejectment sets forth the 
  possession of the plaintiff, and an unlawful entry on the part of the 
  defendant. 
       4.-2. This action is in general sustainable only for the recovery of 
  the possession of property upon which an entry might in point of fact be 
  made, and of which the sheriff could deliver actual possession: it cannot, 
  therefore, in general, be sustained for the recovery of property which, in 
  legal consideration, is not tangible; as, for a rent, or other incorporeal 
  hereditaments, a water-course, or for a mere privilege of a landing held in 
  common with other citizens of a town. 2 Yeates, 331; 3 Bl. Com. 206; Yelv. 
  143; Run. Eject. 121 to 136 Ad. Eject. c. 2; 9 John. 298; 16 John. 284. 
       5.-3. The title of the party having a right of entry maybe in fee-
  simple, fee-tail, or for life or years; and if it be the best title to the 
  property the plaintiff will succeed. The plaintiff must recover on the 
  strength. of his title, and not on the weakness or deficiency of that of the 
  defendant. Addis. Rep. 390; 2 Serg. & Rawle, 65; 3 Serg. & Rawle, 288; 4 
  Burr. 2487; 1 East, R. 246; Run. Eject. 15; 5 T. R. 110. 
       6.-4. The injury sustained must in fact or in point of law have 
  amounted to an ouster or dispossession of the lessor of the plaintiff, or of 
  the plaintiff himself, where the fictions have been abolished; for if there 
  be no ouster, or the defendant be not in possession at the time of bringing 
  the action, the plaintiff must fail. 7 T. R. 327; 1 B. & P. 573; 2 Caines' 
  R. 335. 
       7.-5. The judgment is that the plaintiff do recover his term, of and 
  in the tenements, and, unless the damages be remitted, the damages assessed 
  by the jury with the costs of increase. In Pennsylvania, however, and, it is 
  presumable, in all those states where the fictitious form of this action has 
  been abolished, the plaintiff recovers possession of the land generally, and 
  not simply a term of years in the land. See 2 Seam. 251; 4 B. Monr. 210; 3 
  Harr. 73; 1 McLean, 87. Vide, generally, Adams on Ej.; 4 Bouv. Inst. n., 
  3651, et seq.; Run. Ej.; Com. Dig. h.t.; Dane's Ab. h.t.; 1 Chit. Pl. 188 
  to 193; 18 E. C. L. R. 158; Woodf. L. & T. 354 to 417; 2 Phil. Ev. 169.; 8 
  Vin. Ab. 323; Arch. Civ. Pl. 503; 2 Sell. Pr. 85; Chit. Pr. Index, h.t.; 
  Bac. Ab. h. t Doct. Pl. 227; Am. Dig. h.t.; Report of the Commissioners to 
  Revise the Civil Code of Pennsylvania, January 16, 1835, pp. 80, 81, 83; 
  Coop. Justinian, 448.