Kinsolving v. Reed

NOBLE, Justice.

Plaintiff, the owner of 320 acres of unfenced grazing land entirely surrounded by defendant’s ranch, sued for the rental value of the land alleging that defendant’s livestock pastured on his land. Defendant has appealed from a judgment awarding damages for such pasturing of plaintiff’s land.

Plaintiff asserts that his sole ground of recovery is on an assumpsit theory for defendant’s use of the 320 acres of grazing land. An action in assumpsit for the use and occupation, under the old common-law forms of pleadings, was necessarily founded on the idea of a contract, express or…