Also known as: use or intermeddle · intermeddling · executor de son tort
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
An act of using or intermeddling with a chattel in the possession of another. The interference must be meaningful to support liability for trespass to chattels.
Ten-year-old Leo and friends walked past an uncovered trash compactor pit on their way to a creek. Leo reached toward the machine to examine its moving parts. Because of his youth Leo did not appreciate the crushing risk created by using or intermeddling with the equipment.
Trevor retrieved Roger's suitcase of designer outfits from behind the counter and dressed mannequins for a two-day store display. He returned the garments wrinkled but otherwise intact. The unauthorized handling constituted using the chattels without permission.
Cyber Promotions sent thousands of unsolicited emails through CompuServe's system. The messages generated physical contact with the company's servers and consumed processing resources. CompuServe experienced measurable interference with its chattels.
CompuServe Incorporated operates one of the major national commercial online computer services through a proprietary nationwide computer network that provides subscribers with access to its content and a link to the Internet for exchanging electronic mail. Defendants Cyber Promotions, Inc. and its president Sanford Wallace are in the business of sending unsolicited e-mail advertisements on behalf of themselves and their clients to hundreds of thousands of Internet users, many of whom are CompuServe subscribers. Over the past several months, CompuServe received many complaints from subscribers threatening to discontinue their subscriptions unless the company prohibited electronic mass mailers from using its equipment. In or around October 1995, CompuServe employee Jon Schmidt specifically told Sanford Wallace that he was prohibited from using CompuServe's equipment to send junk e-mail messages. CompuServe later posted an online policy statement declaring that it does not permit its facilities to be used by unauthorized parties to process and store unsolicited e-mail. Despite the notification, defendants sent an increasing volume of e-mail solicitations to CompuServe subscribers. CompuServe attempted to block the messages with software programs, but defendants modified their equipment and messages to circumvent the screening by falsifying the point-of-origin information in the headers, removing sender information, and configuring their servers to conceal their true domain name. CompuServe submitted affidavits from software developer Michael Mangino on the burden to its equipment, customer service manager Patrick Hole on receiving approximately 9,970 e-mail complaints in November 1996, and others documenting the evasion tactics. On October 24, 1996, the court issued a temporary restraining order, and following a hearing on December 15, 1996, the court considered CompuServe's application for a preliminary injunction to extend the order and enjoin defendants from sending any unsolicited advertisements to CompuServe subscribers.
Homeowners invoked a state moratorium to delay foreclosure sales during an economic emergency. Lenders lost the ability to exercise contractual rights over their security interests for an extended period. The state action altered control over the lenders' chattel interests.
The Blaisdells executed a mortgage on their property in Minneapolis to the Home Building & Loan Association on August 1, 1928. The mortgage contained a valid power of sale by advertisement. After default, the mortgage was foreclosed and the property sold to the Association on May 2, 1932, for $3700.98. The period of redemption under the law then in effect was set to expire on May 2, 1933. On April 18, 1933, Minnesota enacted Chapter 339 of the Laws of 1933, known as the Mortgage Moratorium Law. The statute authorized district courts to extend the period of redemption from foreclosure sales for such additional time as the court deemed just and equitable, not beyond May 1, 1935, upon condition that the mortgagor pay a reasonable part of the income or rental value toward taxes, insurance, interest, and principal. The Blaisdells applied to the District Court of Hennepin County for an extension of the redemption period. The district court found that the reasonable rental value of the property was $40 per month and the present market value was $6000. It extended the redemption period to May 1, 1935, requiring the Blaisdells to pay $40 per month to the Association. The Supreme Court of Minnesota affirmed the order. The Home Building & Loan Association appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which reviewed the judgment sustaining the statute as applied to the preexisting mortgage.
A city enacted an ordinance that prevented a church from expanding its building under a newly adopted land-use rule. Church leaders viewed the restriction as an interference with their control over the property. The ordinance changed how the congregation could use its own chattels.
St. Peter Catholic Church was built in 1923 in Boerne, Texas. Its structure replicates the mission style of the region's earlier history. The church seats about 230 worshippers, a number too small for its growing parish. Some 40 to 60 parishioners cannot be accommodated at some Sunday masses. To meet the needs of the congregation, the Archbishop of San Antonio gave permission to the parish to plan alterations to enlarge the building. A few months later, the Boerne City Council passed an ordinance authorizing the city's Historic Landmark Commission to prepare a preservation plan with proposed historic landmarks and districts. Under the ordinance, the commission must preapprove construction affecting historic landmarks or buildings in a historic district. Soon afterwards, the Archbishop applied for a building permit so construction to enlarge the church could proceed. City authorities, relying on the ordinance and the designation of a historic district which they argued included the church, denied the application. The Archbishop brought this suit challenging the permit denial in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. The complaint contained multiple claims, but to this point the litigation has centered on RFRA and the question of its constitutionality. The District Court concluded that by enacting RFRA Congress exceeded the scope of its enforcement power under section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court certified its order for interlocutory appeal and the Fifth Circuit reversed, finding RFRA to be constitutional. The Supreme Court granted certiorari and now reverses. Congress enacted RFRA in direct response to the Court's decision in Employment Div., Dept. of Human Resources of Ore. v. Smith. RFRA prohibits government from substantially burdening a person's exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability. Unless the government can demonstrate that the burden is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest, it must also show that the burden is the least restrictive means of furthering that interest. The Act applies to all federal and state law, and the implementation of that law, whether statutory or otherwise, and whether adopted before or after the enactment of RFRA.
Bidder's Edge deployed automated crawlers that repeatedly accessed eBay's servers to collect listing data. The activity imposed a measurable load on eBay's computer systems. eBay experienced ongoing interference with its server resources.
eBay, Inc. operates an Internet-based person-to-person trading site that allows sellers to list items for auction and buyers to search listings and place bids directly with sellers. The site has over 7 million registered users, adds more than 400,000 new items daily, receives 10 million searches per day, and processes 600 bids per minute across nearly 3 million items. Users register by clicking an “I Accept” button on a seven-page User Agreement that prohibits robots, spiders, or other automated devices from monitoring or copying web pages without prior written permission. Bidder’s Edge, Inc., a 22-employee company founded in 1997, operates an auction aggregation site that compiles data from more than one hundred auction sites into its own database containing over five million items. When a user searches on the BE site, the site queries its database rather than the original host sites. Approximately 69 percent of the items in BE’s database come from eBay auctions, and BE estimates it would lose one-third of its users if it stopped covering eBay. In early 1998 eBay permitted BE to include Beanie Babies and Furbies listings. In April 1999 eBay verbally approved BE crawling the site for a 90-day period while the parties negotiated a licensing agreement, but they failed to reach terms. After BE briefly stopped posting eBay listings in late August or early September 1999 and then resumed in November, eBay sent a November 9 letter demanding that BE cease access, alleging trespass, and offering a license. eBay then blocked 169 IP addresses it believed BE was using; BE evaded the blocks by routing queries through proxy servers. BE sent eBay’s systems between 80,000 and 100,000 requests per day, accounting for 0.70 to 1.53 percent of eBay’s requests and data transfer during October and November 1999. eBay calculated alleged damages of $45,323 to $61,804 over ten months but did not identify specific incremental costs caused by BE. The motion for a preliminary injunction was heard on April 14, 2000.
Liability requires intentional using or intermeddling that produces meaningful interference with the possessor's rights. Courts examine whether the conduct caused actual harm, material impairment of use, or deprivation for a substantial time. Brief handling that leaves the chattel fully functional and returns it promptly usually falls short of the required threshold.
…statement by Thomas Jefferson that he considered "the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises," post , at 562 (internal quotation marks omitted); but it is quite clear that Jefferson did not in fact espouse the…
…moderation and harmony which the forbearance of our laws to intermeddle with Religion, has produced amongst its several sects." Intermeddling, to use Madison's word, or "entanglement," to use what was said in Walz , has two aspects. The intrusion of government into religious schools through grants, supervision, or surveillance…
…is due, become unlawful; but in the case last put, to read into the contract a pertinent provisional exception in the event of intermeddling
…toward conducting commerce in a cyberspace made from computer programs. : "If 30 or 40 companies spring into existence using similar business models, what will be the total load and impact on eBay’s servers?” : "One crawler may currently use 1% of eBay's resources. What if hundred of users used similar…
Dispossession occurs when the defendant takes exclusive control and removes the chattel from the plaintiff's possession. Intermeddling covers intentional physical contact or use that interferes with the chattel while it remains in the plaintiff's possession. Both can support liability when the interference is meaningful.
Yes. Removing calibration labels from specialized sensors impaired the owner's ability to match the equipment to records and locations even though the devices remained functional. The alteration changed the condition of the chattels and created lasting interference with their utility.
A policy providing notice that bicycles left too long may be relocated can support an argument against liability when the move is temporary and causes no damage. The absence of actual harm or substantial deprivation of use often leads courts to find no actionable intermeddling.
Confiscation and four-day retention despite the owner's protests satisfies the intentional dispossession element. The extended period during which the owner could not use the device for critical work constitutes meaningful interference with possessory rights.