Also known as: eject · ejects · ejected · ejecting · ejection · ejector · ejectment action · writ of ejectment
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A common-law action by which a plaintiff who holds title to real property and has been wrongfully ousted from possession recovers the land along with damages and costs.
Esme Ellington attempts to retake her cabin after a squatter refuses to leave. When the squatter brandishes a weapon creating a substantial risk of fatal injury, Esme uses a level of force that a reasonable person would recognize as likely to cause serious bodily harm. A court later evaluates whether that level of force was privileged in the course of her ejectment effort.
Edward Everett claims superior title to a tract of land in Virginia under a federal grant. After state courts reject his claim in an ejectment suit, he appeals to the United States Supreme Court. The Court reviews whether federal appellate jurisdiction extends to the state judgment determining possession.
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Elena Estrada owns an apartment building. A cable company installs permanent equipment on the roof without consent. She brings ejectment to remove the equipment and argues that the fixed physical occupation constitutes a taking requiring compensation.
Eric Espinoza sues nonresident shareholders in Delaware by attaching their stock to obtain jurisdiction in an ejectment action over corporate real estate. The defendants contest whether the mere presence of property satisfies due process when they lack minimum contacts with the forum.
Enzo Eastwood, a bankruptcy trustee, seeks to recover real property through an ejectment action against a fraudulent transferee. The transferee demands a jury trial, requiring the court to decide whether the claim is one that historically carried a Seventh Amendment right to a jury.
Emily Ellis obtains a judgment against a nonresident debtor in Oregon and executes on land located there. The debtor later brings ejectment in federal court, challenging whether publication service alone conferred valid jurisdiction over the property under traditional territorial rules.
The plaintiff must show legal title to the land, that the defendant wrongfully ousted or dispossessed the plaintiff, and resulting damages. These elements appear consistently in both historical and modern descriptions of the action.
Ejectment is the traditional common-law remedy available against any wrongful possessor. Unlawful detainer is a statutory summary proceeding typically limited to landlord-tenant disputes and joined with a claim for unpaid rent.
Yes. When successive possessors share privity, such as through a landlord-tenant relationship, their periods may be combined to satisfy the statutory period required to bar an ejectment action.
No. Ejectment itself concerns recovery of possession. Questions of serious bodily harm arise only when a party claims the privilege of self-defense while resisting an attempted ouster.
…of the conceptual structure founded on the century-old case of Pennoyer v. Neff , 95 U. S. 714 (1878). Pennoyer was an ejectment action brought in federal court under the diversity jurisdiction. Pennoyer, the defendant in that action, held the land under a deed purchased in a sheriff's sale conducted to realize on a…