State v. . Graves
Supreme Court of North Carolina
INDICTMENT, for Forcible Trespass in removing rails, tried at 'the Spring Term, 1875, of Duplin Superior Court, before his Honor, Judge Kerr. The case made out and signed by counsel, states that the defendant and a boy moved a division fence between the field the defendant rented, and the prosecutrix, who was tenant by dower on the other side, she being present and forbidding it. Under the charge of his Honor, the defendant was found .guilty, whereupon he appealed.
1Opinion of the CourtBynusi, J.
The indictment is good, but the evidence does ■not support it. The charge is a forcible trespass to personal property, and the evidence goes to establish a forcible trespass upon the realty. Rails when made into a fence upon the land, become a part of the land, and as much so as a tree or a ■house. The act of taking the rails from the fence is not the subject of larceny at common law, nor is it a trespass to personalty. To cut down and , carry away a tree by one continuous act, is not a trespass to personal property. So to remove rails from a fence and carry them away by the same continuous…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- State v. . BurtSupreme Court of North Carolina · 1870
3Cited by5 opinions
- State v. BakerSupreme Court of North Carolina · 1949
- State v. . HovisSupreme Court of North Carolina · 1877
- State v. Beck.Supreme Court of North Carolina · 1906
- Bagley v. Rose Hill Sugar Co.Supreme Court of Louisiana · 1903
- Jewett v. DringerSupreme Court of New Jersey · 1878