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Self-help, in the sense of a
legal doctrine A legal doctrine is a framework, set of rules, procedural steps, or test, often established through precedent in the common law, through which judgments can be determined in a given legal case. A doctrine comes about when a judge makes a rulin ...
, refers to individuals' implementation of their rights without resorting to legal
writ In common law, a writ (Anglo-Saxon ''gewrit'', Latin ''breve'') is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court. Warrants, prerogative writs, subpoenas, ...
or consultation of higher authority, as where a
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repossesses a car on which they hold both the title and a defaulted note. Individuals resort to self-help when they retrieve property found under the unauthorized control of another person, or simply abate nuisances (as by using sandbags and ditches to protect land from being flooded). A self-help eviction refers to a commercial landlord's common law right to use self-help to reenter his or her property peaceably in order to evict a defaulting tenant or other person with no right of possession.


Degrees of limitation

The legal system places varying degrees of limitation on self-help, and laws vary widely among different
jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. Ju ...
s. Often, self-help will be allowed as long as no law is broken, and no
breach of the peace Breach of the peace, or disturbing the peace, is a legal term used in constitutional law in English-speaking countries and in a public order sense in the several jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It is a form of disorderly conduct. Public or ...
occurs (or is likely to occur). Also, the usual limit on liability for actions of an
agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...
will not apply; if one uses an agent such as an independent contractor to perform the self-help action, the principal will be held
strictly liable In criminal and civil law, strict liability is a standard of liability under which a person is legally responsible for the consequences flowing from an activity even in the absence of fault or criminal intent on the part of the defendant. ...
if anything goes wrong. Courts will often place stricter limits on repossession of certain types of merchandise and on
eviction Eviction is the removal of a tenant from rental property by the landlord. In some jurisdictions it may also involve the removal of persons from premises that were foreclosed by a mortgagee (often, the prior owners who defaulted on a mort ...
of tenants. Creditors and landlords who resort to self-help in such situations are prone to
tort A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishab ...
liability, and in some jurisdictions, to
criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...
liability.


''MBank El Paso v. Sanchez''

A famous case, '' MBank El Paso v. Sanchez'' 836 S.W.2d 151 (Tex. 1992), was heard by the
Texas Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Texas (SCOTX) is the court of last resort for civil matters (including juvenile delinquency cases, which are categorized as civil under the Texas Family Code) in the U.S. state of Texas. A different court, the Texas Court o ...
. Sanchez was the registered owner of a vehicle which MBank El Paso was lienholder. When a tow truck operator hired by the bank attempted to repossess the vehicle, Sanchez locked herself in the car. The tow truck operator hooked the car up to the tow truck anyway, and proceeded to drive it, with Sanchez still in the vehicle, at high speed to the lot where it was left, protected by a
junkyard dog Sylvester Ritter (December 13, 1952 – June 1, 1998) was an American professional wrestler and college football player, best known for his work in Mid-South Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation as the Junkyard Dog (or JYD), a nickname h ...
. It required the combined efforts of Sanchez' boyfriend and the police to allow her to escape the impound lot. In a subsequent trial, the repossession was declared unlawful and reversed, and the bank was also held liable for $1,250,000 in damages to Sanchez, even though the unlawful eviction was taken by the tow truck operator, who was not an employee of the bank. The bank was held to a "non-delegatable duty not to breach the peace," and that any breach of the peace – whether by the
debtor A debtor or debitor is a legal entity (legal person) that owes a debt to another entity. The entity may be an individual, a firm, a government, a company or other legal person. The counterparty is called a creditor. When the counterpart of this ...
, the creditor, or even an
independent contractor Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any ot ...
merely acting on behalf of the creditor – is considered the fault of the creditor.


Lack of judicial remedy

In a looser sense, self-help can also refer to individuals taking the law into their own hands, usually through violence or other illegal behavior. It can lead to factions forming around the disputing parties and also to broad civil conflict. Historically, self-help has been regarded as the recourse for injured parties when no courts are available that will accept jurisdiction. The dangers of self-help are often advanced as an argument against allowing a situation to develop in which people feel they have no judicial path to a remedy, or that the courts are too corrupt to render just decisions, and as the main reason why impartial courts are established in the first place. California has recognized the dangers of self-help evictions by landlords, in which tenants, landlords, and innocent bystanders might be injured or killed as a result of a self-help eviction. Due to the heavy case loads courts have, civil litigants can be required to wait months or years for a trial date. The State of California gives landlord-tenant cases priority over all other cases except for criminal trials and trials where the plaintiff or defendant is over 70 years of age.California Civil Code, Sec. 36. In one case, a plaintiff over 70 years of age had to sue the Superior Court of Santa Clara County to get a courtroom to try his case after two years of continuances. ''Miller v. Superior Court'' (Simpson) (1990), 21_Cal._App._3d_1202


_''United_States_v._Alvarez-Machain''

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''United States v. Alvarez-Machain''

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''United States v. Alvarez-Machain''

One of the more famous examples of self-help occurred when, after Enrique Camarena Salazar, a Drug Enforcement Administration">Drug Enforcement agent, was murdered in Mexico in 1985, the U.S. Government hired Mercenary, mercenaries to kidnap Humberto Álvarez Machaín, a local doctor who was suspected of being involved in the murder, and bring him out of Mexico to face trial in the United States without going through the formality of demanding
extradition Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdi ...
from the Mexican government. The original trial court was of the opinion that such action was illegal. The
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. Federal tribunals in the United States, federal court cases, and over Stat ...
decided that the self-help
extradition Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdi ...
of Machain from Mexico was legal, notwithstanding the existence of a
treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal pers ...
covering extradition between the U.S. and Mexico. '' United States v. Alvarez-Machain'', 504 U.S. 655, 657 (1992). In the subsequent trial, Machain was acquitted.


See also

* Repair and deduct, a related principle within the context of landlord–tenant law


References

* * * * {{Authority control Legal terminology Landlord–tenant law nl:Eigenrichting