Dougherty v. Stepp


18 N.C. 371 (1835)

The defendant entered plaintiff’s land and surveyed a portion of it, without cutting bushes or marking trees. Plaintiff sued defendant for trespass.

The trial court held that, since defendant did not cause any damage to the land, his actions did not constitute trespass.  The North Carolina Supreme Court reversed.

The Court held that defendant’s conduct did constitute trespass.  The Court reasoned, “every unauthorized, and therefore unlawful entry, into the close of another, is a trespass. From every such entry against the will of the possessor, the law infers some damage; if nothing more, the treading down the grass or the herbage, or as here, the shrubbery.”

 

 

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