from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
TRESPASSER. One who commits a trespass.
2. A man is a trespasser by his own direct action he acts without any
excuse; or he may be a trespasser in the execution of a legal process in an
illegal manner; 1 Chit. Pl. 183: 2 John. Cas. 27; or when the court has no
jurisdiction over the subject-matter when the court has jurisdiction but the
proceeding is defective and void; when the process has been misapplied, as,
when the defendant has taken A's goods on an execution against B; when the
process has been abused 1 Chit. Pl. 183-187 in all these cases a man is a
trespasser ab initio. And a person capable of giving his assent may become a
trespasser, by an act subsequent to the tort. If, for example, a an take
possession of land for the use of another, the latter may afterwards
recognize and adopt the act; by so doing, he places himself in the situation
of one who had previously commanded it, and consequently is himself a
trespasser, if the other had no right to enter, nor he to command the entry.
4 Inst. 317; Ham. N. P. 215. Vide 1 Rawle's R. 121.