Case Name: KIEHL, Appellant, v. HOLLIDAY, Respondent
Court: Montana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Montana
Decision Date: 1926-11-29
Citations: 77 Mont. 451
Docket Number: No. 5,995
Parties: KIEHL, Appellant, v. HOLLIDAY, Respondent.
Judges: Justices Galen, Stark and Matthews and Honorable Henry G. Rodgers, District Judge, sitting in place of Mr. Justice Holloway, absent on account of illness, concur.
Reporter: Montana Reports
Volume: 77
Pages: 451–455

Head Matter:
KIEHL, Appellant, v. HOLLIDAY, Respondent.
(No. 5,995.)
(Submitted. November 10, 1926.
Decided November 29, 1926.)
[251 Pac. 527.]
Mr. L. B. Daems, for Appellant, submitted a brief.
Mr. C. A. Linn, for Respondent, submitted a brief and argued the cause orally.

Opinion:
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE CALLAWAY
delivered the opinion of the court.
The plaintiff, occupant and lawfully in possession of certain lands in Wheatland county, sued the defendant for herding and pasturing thereon 2,000 head of sheep belonging to defendant.
It was alleged by plaintiff and denied by defendant that the defendant had "wrongfully, negligently, unlawfully and maliciously and without right or authority and without consent of plaintiff, herded and pastured said sheep on the said premises with result that the grass and herbage was eaten off and destroyed. ' '
The jury returned a verdict for plaintiff for $25. Plaintiff in due time claimed his costs by filing and serving a memorandum of the items of his costs and necessary disburse ments in the action, duly verified as provided in section 9803, Revised Codes of 1921. The court, upon motion of defendant, struck the bill of costs from the files. The plaintiff had settled a bill of exceptions and appealed from the judgment.
The question for determination is whether the plaintiff, who recovered damages for $25 only, is entitled to costs, in view of the provisions of section 9787, Revised Codes of 1921, which reads in part as follows: "Costs are allowed, of course, to the plaintiff, upon a judgment in his favor, in the following cases: (1) In an action for the recovery of -real property, or damages thereto. * # # (3) In an action for the recovery of money or damages, exclusive of interest, when plaintiff recovers over fifty dollars. (5) In an action which involves the title or possession, or right of possession, of real estate. "
Plaintiff contends that as the jury, found in his favor he is entitled to costs under both subdivisions 1 and 5, regardless of the amount recovered, while defendant relies upon subdivision 3.
We think plaintiff is entitled to costs under subdivision 1. Clearly a plaintiff upon judgment in his favor in an action for the recovery of damages to real property is entitled to his-costs. This plaintiff, being the occupant and lawfully in possession of the lands, was entitled to the exclusive possession thereof as against the defendant; the defendant, making an unwarranted entry upon the lands of plaintiff, committed a trespass. Every unauthorized entry upon land of another is a trespass. (Monroe v. Cannon, 24 Mont. 316, 81 Am. St. Rep. 439, 61 Pac. 863; 38 Cyc. 995, and cases cited.) A trespass implies some injury to the real estate. Every such entry "carries necessarily along with it some damage or other; for, if no other special damage can be assigned, yet the words of the writ itself specify one general damage, viz., the treading down and bruising his herbage." (3 Blackstone's Commentaries, 210.)
The grass was a part of plaintiff's real property. Real property consists of "(1) Land; (2) That which is affixed to land. " (See. 6667, Rev. Codes 1921.) "A thing is deemed to be affixed to land when it is attached to it by roots, as in the case of trees, vines, or shrubs. " (Id. 6669.) "Growing grass and trees and the fruit of them, called fructus naturales, are a part of the soil of which they are the natural growth." (Anderson's Law Dictionary, "Fructus.")
Section 6669, so far as it refers to roots, vines, and shrubs, includes fructus naturales, which are things produced essentially by the powers of nature alone. (Power Merc. Co. v. Moore Merc. Co., 55 Mont. 401, 177 Pac. 406; R. M. Cobban Realty Co. v. Donlan, 51 Mont. 58, 149 Pac. 484; Bjornson v. Rostead, 30 S. D. 40, Ann. Cas. 1915A, 1151, 137 N. W. 567.)
The destruction of plaintiff's growing grass, therefore, was a damage to plaintiff's real property, and any judgment in plaintiff's favor because thereof entitled him to costs regardless of the amount recovered.
Subdivision 3 is a general provision respecting costs in actions for the recovery of money or damages, exclusive of interest, and has no application to the special instances covered by subdivision 1. This conclusion makes it unnecessary to consider the applicability of subdivision 5.
The judgment is reversed and the cause is remanded to the district court of Wheatland county, with directions to expunge from its minutes the order striking plaintiff's cost bill from the files and to reinstate the same.
Reversed and remanded.
Justices Galen, Stark and Matthews and Honorable Henry G. Rodgers, District Judge, sitting in place of Mr. Justice Holloway, absent on account of illness, concur.