Also known as: dispossesses · dispossessed · dispossessing · dispossession · dispossessions · dispossessor · dispossessors · evict · ouster
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
To oust or evict a person from property or to deprive another of possession of a chattel.
Destiny Davis returns to her cabin two hours after Devon Drake forced her out at gunpoint. She believes she holds title and pushes Drake aside to regain the doorway. The immediate timing of her entry satisfies the conditions for justified force following dispossession.
Dolores Diaz grabs the laptop from Daphne Doyle's desk without consent and walks away with it. The act removes Doyle from physical control of the device. Liability for trespass to chattels arises once the dispossession is complete.
Deanna Davenport spots Damian Decker leaving her garage with her toolbox and immediately chases him down the driveway. She uses force only while still in pursuit. The timing keeps the recapture within the window permitted after dispossession.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Dakota Industries takes the leased equipment from Duffy Construction's site, leaving the contractor without any means to continue work. The removal fully deprives Duffy of the chattel. The dispossession triggers potential damages under trespass rules.
Duarte Shipping returns to the dock it had been forced to vacate the previous day and begins unloading cargo. The company had been unlawfully dispossessed and now seeks to resume operations under the recapture privilege. The re-entry is evaluated against the justification standards for such actions.
Dillon Energy pressures a supplier into handing over stored parts by threatening to cancel all future contracts. The supplier yields the goods under the coercive demand. The transfer constitutes dispossession accomplished through duress rather than consent.
Force must occur immediately or during fresh pursuit following the dispossession. Later efforts fall outside the permitted window and lose justification.
No. A person dispossessed of land does not regain possession simply by entering the property again.
Dispossession occurs when one intentionally takes the chattel from another's possession without consent or obtains it through fraud or duress.
Dispossession occurs when the true owner reclaims the goods, and damages are then measured by the value of the goods at the time of that reclamation rather than at acceptance.
…"direct appropriation" of property, Legal Tender Cases , 12 Wall. 457, 531 (1871), or the functional equivalent of a "practical ouster of [the owner's] possession," Transportation Co. v. Chicago , 99 U. S. 635, 642 (1879). Mahon was the first case to recognize that a regulation could effect a taking. It is well settled…