Gator, does Virginia not have laws that provide penalties, remedies and awards for damages for both civil and criminal trespassing?
Banning traditional methods of hunting through the setting of hunting seasons seems to be a slippery slope that puts all of our hunting rights at risk. It affects the rights of both the guilty and the innocent without due process.
Here's an example what I'm talking about:
ScottyMacEsq :
"Your basis for trespass at common law would be to prove "an unauthorized entry onto property which results in interference with the property owner's possessory interest therein."
Cooper v. Horn, 248 VA 417, 423, 448 S.E.2d 403, 406 (1994)."
link:
http://www.justanswer.com/law/5svba-need-file-civil-trespassing-claim-virginia-against.html
Read the whole case opinion here:
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_...er+horn+common+law+trespass&hl=en&as_sdt=4,47
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In addition to their allegations of negligence, the plaintiffs asserted a separate and distinct cause of action for
common law trespass to land (
trespass quare clausum fregit). This action derives from the "general principle of
law, [that] every person is entitled to the exclusive and peaceful enjoyment of his own land, and to redress if such enjoyment shall be wrongfully interrupted by another."
Tate v. Ogg, 170 Va. 95, 99, 195 S.E. 496, 498 (1938).
"[A]
trespass is an unauthorized entry onto property which results in interference with the property owner's possessory interest therein." 5 Richard R. Powell,
The Law of Real Property ¶ 707 (Patrick J. Rohan ed., 1994). Thus, in order to maintain a cause of action for
trespass to land, the plaintiff must have had possession of the land, either actual or constructive, at the time the
trespass was committed.
Blackford v. Rogers, 2 Va.Dec. 292, 294, 23 S.E. 896, 897 (1896).
In addition, to recover for
trespass to land, a plaintiff must prove an invasion that interfered with the right of exclusive possession of the land, and that was a direct result of some act committed by the defendant. Any physical entry upon the surface of the land constitutes such an invasion, whether the entry is "a walking upon it, flooding it with water, casting objects upon it, or otherwise." W. Page Keeton et al.,
Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts § 13, at 70 (5th ed. 1984).
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Hunting seasons were not meant to be set for the purpose of settling trespassing disputes.
Here's some good information for you to read as well:
http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1561&context=wmborj
