Court Opinion

ID: 9588736
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:37:48.501098+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:42:37.573057
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
The appellee Lake Manor asserts that this court is confused as to the essentials of the case, which are that Jack Kerlin was an illegal sub-tenant, an intruder and a trespasser and thus Lake Manor had the absolute right to expel him and his property. However, it is the appellee who has confused the essentials of this case and import of the cases it cites on motion for rehearing. We do not doubt for a minute that a landlord has the right to “summarily oust” a trespasser and his property as well (Bass v. West, 110 Ga. 698 705 (36 SE 244); Liberty Loan Corp. v. Leftwich, 118 Ga. App. 383 (163 SE2d 837)); but “[i]t by no means follows ... that the [trespasser] is cut off from recovering any damages whatsoever. ‘The bare possession of land authorizes the possessor to recover damages from any person who wrongfully in any manner interferes with such possession.’ Civil Code, § 3876____‘Even though this possession may have been illegally acquired, it is sufficient.’ ” (Emphasis supplied.) Bass, supra, p. 706. So, too, a landlord “may refuse to recognize [an unlawful sub-tenant] and proceed to expel the person placed upon the premises... without his consent, as an intruder, in any manner prescribed by law for the expulsion of trespassers or intruders.” (Emphasis supplied.) McBurney v. McIntyre, 38 Ga. 262, 263.
Lake Manor cites no authority holding that a landlord may unlawfully evict an intruder and damage his property with impunity, merely because he is an intruder. The suit here is by the tenant Rita Kerlin for unlawful eviction and damage to property possessed by her, but even the intruder Jack Kerlin would have a cause of action for unlawful eviction. The laws allowing recovery for unlawful evictions *625do not excuse the illegality on the basis that the landlord had a right to evict; or else there would be no such thing as an unlawful eviction.

Motion for rehearing denied.