deforcement

deforcement, in English property law, wrongful taking and possession of land belonging to another. Deforcement had its primary legal significance in feudal England. Deforcement arose particularly in cases in which land possessed by a tenant escheated (was forfeited) to his lord (either for reason of the tenant’s wrongful act against the manor or for nonpayment of rent due the lord), in which the occurrence of some other event carried the penalty of forfeiture of the tenant’s land to his lord, and in which the tenant or some other person wrongfully withheld possession of the land from the lord.

As a general concept, deforcement included the more specific act of disseisin (see adverse possession). It also included ouster, the act by a stranger of forcing a lawful heir from his inherited land. Unlike disseisin and ouster, however, deforcement did not require that the person against whom the land was wrongfully withheld once had possession of the land. Thus, deforcement also embraced the acts of intrusion and abatement, the wrongful entry and occupation by a stranger of vacant land belonging to another.

The term deforcement has waned in legal significance in modern times, having been replaced in usage by more specific terminology such as adverse possession.