FORCIBLE ENTRY - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

FORCIBLE ENTRYAuthored

The Law Mind • 1521 words

Definition

Forcible entry is the act of taking or retaking possession of real property through violence, threats, or intimidation — without the authority of law — against the will of whoever is lawfully entitled to possession. It is both a criminal offense against the public peace and, historically, the basis for a civil remedy to restore possession to the party displaced.

The offense has two forms in most treatments:

1. Entry with actual force — physically breaking through doors, windows, gates, or other barriers to gain access to land or a dwelling.

2. Entry with constructive force — gaining access without literal breaking but through threats, intimidation, show of arms, or menacing conduct sufficient to overcome the will of the occupant.

The defining element across both forms is that the entry is accomplished against the will of a person with a lawful right to possession, and without legal justification or process. The wrongdoer's underlying claim to ownership is irrelevant to the offense: even a person with a valid title to property commits forcible entry if they take possession through force rather than legal process.

---

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "The unlawful seizure of the possession of real property by force or threats of force or an unlawful entry into or onto another's property, especially when accompanied by force."

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Webster's treats "forcible entry" as a legal term of art without a separate popular definition, reflecting that the phrase was already understood primarily in its legal context by the nineteenth century.

Editorial note: In common usage today, "forcible entry" often suggests a purely physical act — kicking in a door, breaking a lock — and is frequently associated with police or emergency responders exercising lawful authority. The legal offense, by contrast, focuses on the unlawfulness of the entry and the absence of legal process, not merely the physical method. A law enforcement officer executing a valid warrant who breaks down a door commits no forcible entry in the legal sense; a landlord who breaks the same door to retake possession without a court order may.

---

Common Confusion

FORCIBLE ENTRY vs. FORCIBLE DETAINER: These two terms are closely related but legally distinct. Forcible entry is the wrongful act of seizing possession. Forcible detainer is the wrongful act of holding possession after a lawful right to remain has expired or been terminated — for example, a tenant who refuses to vacate after lease expiration. The two are frequently paired in statutes and in the names of summary proceedings ("forcible entry and detainer" or "FED"), which can obscure the distinction. A party may be liable for detainer without having committed an entry; a party who commits a forcible entry and then occupies has committed both. Researchers encountering "forcible entry and detainer" in older sources should determine whether the source is addressing the entry, the detainer, or the combined statutory action.

FORCIBLE ENTRY vs. TRESPASS: Trespass to land covers any unauthorized entry, with or without force or threats. Forcible entry, as a distinct offense and cause of action, historically required something more — force, menace, or intimidation sufficient to overcome resistance. A quiet, undetected entry onto another's land is a trespass; it is not forcible entry.

---

Core Elements

The common law offense and its statutory descendants generally require:

1. Entry onto real property (land, tenements, or a dwelling) — personal property is not within the scope.
2. Force or intimidation — either actual physical force against barriers or persons, or threats and menacing conduct sufficient to overcome resistance.
3. Against the will of the person in actual possession — the party displaced need not hold title; lawful possession is sufficient.
4. Without authority of law — no valid legal process (warrant, writ, court order) authorizes the entry.

The wrongdoer's right or title to the property is not a defense to the offense itself, though it may affect the ultimate resolution of any underlying property dispute.

---

Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

FORCIBLE ENTRY AND DETAINER (FED): The combined statutory action, available in virtually every American jurisdiction, which allows a person wrongfully displaced from possession to obtain a summary judicial remedy restoring possession quickly, without waiting for a full title dispute to be resolved. The proceeding is deliberately narrow: courts in FED actions typically cannot adjudicate underlying title questions.

CRIMINAL FORCIBLE ENTRY: Most jurisdictions retain some criminal dimension to forcible entry, ranging from misdemeanor to felony depending on whether violence against persons accompanied the entry, and whether the structure entered was a dwelling.

SELF-HELP RETAKING: The mirror image of the forcible entry problem — a party with a right to possession who uses force to retake it rather than pursuing legal process. Historically tolerated in some circumstances; modern American law has largely abolished self-help retaking of real property in favor of requiring resort to FED proceedings.

---

Why It Matters in Research

The historical evolution from common law offense to modern summary proceeding is critical to using older sources accurately. Early common law authorities — including Blackstone's treatment in Book IV — frame forcible entry primarily as a criminal matter. By the nineteenth century, the civil remedy had become at least as important as the criminal prosecution. Researchers reading nineteenth-century treatise discussion of "forcible entry" should identify which dimension the source is addressing.

Statutory displacement is nearly total. The common law action has been replaced in every American jurisdiction by forcible entry and detainer statutes. These statutes vary substantially in their procedural requirements, notice provisions, defenses available to defendants, and whether the proceeding is limited strictly to possession (excluding all title questions) or permits some ancillary claims. A rule or defense that appears absolute in a general treatise may be qualified or eliminated by the applicable state statute.

The "title is no defense" principle deserves particular attention. Historical sources sometimes discuss exceptions or qualifications — circumstances under which a landlord's right to possession could be litigated within the FED framework. Modern statutes have generally tightened the restriction, but not uniformly. Researchers should not assume that the principle stated in Black's or Bouvier's maps cleanly onto any specific state's current statutory scheme.

Bouvier's discussion of pretended titles is important historical context. The concern that powerful parties would use force to assert colorable but invalid claims to displace weaker possessors animated early English statutes on this subject, and that policy background helps explain why possession — not title — is the central question in FED proceedings.

The Rapalje & Lawrence entry in the source material has been identified as a mismatch: it addresses mortgage foreclosure, not forcible entry. This illustrates a recurrent research hazard with historical multi-volume dictionaries — cross-reference errors, misbound volumes, and typographical transpositions can place one entry under an adjacent or unrelated heading. Always verify that the entry you are reading in a historical source corresponds to the headword you searched.

---

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's (both editions) and Bouvier's agree on the core elements: violence or menace, possession against the will of the entitled party, absence of legal authority. Black's definition tracks Blackstone directly, citing 4 Bl. Comm. 148 and 4 Steph. Comm. 280, reflecting the criminal law framing that dominated early English treatment of the subject.

Bouvier takes a notably different approach, foregrounding the civil and property dimensions — the invalidity of self-help transfers, the policy against "pretended titles," and the historical connection to livery of seisin. This reflects Bouvier's broader tendency to situate offenses within their property law context, which is useful for researchers tracing the relationship between FED actions and the underlying property dispute.

Burrill's entry is fragmentary in the available source ("An entry with —"), but the opening phrase is consistent with the standard formulation and suggests that Burrill defined the term by reference to the manner of entry rather than the criminal/civil distinction.

None of the historical dictionaries give adequate treatment to the modern summary proceeding dimension or the extent to which FED statutes have displaced the common law. For current procedural law, historical dictionaries are a starting point only.

---

Jurisdictional Note

Every American state has a forcible entry and detainer statute, but the details vary substantially. Some states bifurcate the criminal and civil remedies entirely; others consolidate them. The scope of permissible defenses in a civil FED proceeding — including whether a defendant can raise retaliatory eviction, habitability, or underlying title — differs by jurisdiction and, within jurisdictions, by whether the proceeding involves residential or commercial property.

---

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

The Law Mind Property Law Encyclopedia, property_5: Future Interests — Reversion, Possibility of Reverter, Right of Entry — relevant to understanding the possessory rights whose disturbance can give rise to a forcible entry claim, particularly the "right of entry" as a future interest.

---

FORCIBLE ENTRYmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

An offense against the public peace, or private wrong, committed by violently taking possession of lands and tenements with menaces, force, and arms, against the will of those entitled to the possession, and without the authority of law. 4 Bl. Comm. 148; 4 Steph. Comm. 280: Code Ga. 1882, § 4524. Every person is guilty of forcible entry who either (1) by breaking open doors, win- dows, or other parts of a house, or by any kind of violence or circumstance of terror, enters upon or into any real property; or (2) who, after entering peaceably upon real prop- erty, turns out by force, threats, or menacing conduct the party in possession. Code Civil Proc. Cal. § 1159.

FORCIBLE ENTRYmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

At common law, no person could make a valid sale of land unless he had lawfully entered, and could make livery of seisin,- that is, could make an actual delivery of possession to the purchaser. This provision was early incorporated into the English statutes, to guard against the many evils produced by selling pretended titles to land. A pretended title within the purview of the law is where one person claims land of which another is in possession holding adversely to the claim; 1 Plowd. 88 a; Littleton § 347; 9 Wend. 511. And now in most of the states, every grant of land, except as a release, is void as an act of maintenance, if, at the time it is made, the lands are in the actual posses- sion of another person claiming under a title adverse to that of the grantor; 4 Kent 446; 5 Johns. 489: 6 Mass. 418; 87 Hun 50:30 S. W. Rep. (Ky.) 20; contra, 5 N. H. 181; 6 Binn. 420; 2 App. Cas. D. C, 849. See

FORCIBLE ENTRYmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888

- The offence action asking that a day may be fixed on which the mortgagor is to pay off the debt, and that in default of payment on that day, he (the mortgagor) may be foreclosed of his equity of redemption, i. e. deprived or debarred of his right to redeem. The judgment fixes a place and time for payment, generally six months from the date of the judgment, (Cox v. Watson, 7 Ch. D. 196,) and orders that the mortgagor be foreclosed if the debt is not paid on that day; but the time is often extended. This of entering upon any lands or tenements in a violent manner in order to take possession thereof, whether the violence consists in actual force applied to any other person, or in threats, or in breaking open is called a "strict" foreclosure, and the any house, or in collecting together an effect of it is to bar the mortgagor's right unusual number of persons for the puror equity of redemption, and thus to vest pose of making such entry. In England, the property absolutely in the mortgagee; forcible entry is a misdemeanor, (Steph. Cr. and he cannot subsequently sue the mortDig. 46; 1 Russ. Cr. 404 et seq.; Lows v. gagor for any deficiency of value, unless Telford, 1 App. Cas. 414;) a summary he gives the mortgagor a new right of reremedy by justices of the peace is also demption. (Fish. Mort. 1057.) But even available. (Woodf. Land. & T. 795.) In the United States a civil remedy for obtaining restitution of the lands, is provided by the statutes of the several States, and the offence is also punishable criminally. FORCIBLE ENTRY, (defined). 5 Cal. 156, 157; 4 Com. Dig. 352. (what is). 1 Ashm, (Pa.) 140; 18 Am. Dec. 138, 139, п., 140, п., 144, 146, n., 147, n., 663; 5 Wheel. Am. C. L. 428. (how committed). 38 Cal. 676. FORCIBLE ENTRY AND DETAINER, (what is). 2 Car. & P. 17; 9 Cal. 46; 2 Greene (Iowa) 201; 10 Mass. 403; 6 Halst. (N. J.) 313; 7 Id. 186, 226. 19. FORCIBLY, (in a statute). 2 Gall. (U. S.) 15, FORCIBLY BROKE AND ENTERED, (in a ute). 115 Mass. 561. FORCIBLY RAVISHING, (in a statute). Barb. (N. Y.) 128, 131. FORECLOSURE, Allen (Mass.) 80, 85. stat- (in a promissory note). FORECLOSURE DECREE, (effect of). 9 Cow. (Ν. Υ.) 346. FORDA.-A ford or shallow in a river.- Cowell. FORDAL.-A butt or headland, jutting out apon other land.-Cowell. after an order of foreclosure absolute the court has a discretion to re-open the foreclosure within a reasonable time and allow the mortgagor to redeem. (Campbell v. Holyland, 7 Ch. D. 166.) Foreclosure actions are now comparatively rare in English practice, as the mortgagee's remedy by sale, under the power of sale usually conferred on him, is in general more speedy and convenient. As to the derivation of the word, compare FORJUDGE. See DAY TO SHOW CAUSE; JUDGMENT; MORTGAGE; POWER. 2. In most of the States the prevalent method of foreclosure is by a bill in equity, or equitable action, by the mortgagee praying for a sale of the mortgaged premises under the direction of an officer of the court, and the application of the proceeds to satisfy the mortgage and other incumbrances, if any, according to their priority. When such a sale is completed by the deed of the officer, the mortgagor's title passes to the purchaser, and the court under whose decree the sale was made will enFORDANNO.-A first assailant. Spel. force it, by compelling the mortgagor to Gloss.

forcible entrynoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

The unlawful seizure of the possession of real property by force or threats of force or an unlawful entry into or onto another's property, especially when accompanied by force.

Explore the full Law Mind legal research platform.

Subscribe Encyclopedia Sign In