Ejectment Definition: A ancient now disused claim to remove an individual from poccupying another's real property, based on tresspass. Related Terms: Foreclosure In Minaker, Justice Rand of Canada's Supreme Court wrote: "Ejectment was a special form of trespass based upon a wrongful dispossession.... The plaintiff in such cases recovers not only the land itself, but also damages for the loss suffered by him during the period of his dispossession (mesne profits), and it is by virtue of this right to damages that the wrongful dispossession of land is correctly classed as a tort. "Originally the relief in trespass de ejectione firmae was damages only. Gradually there was added to it the recovery of the land by the dispossessed tenant; and ultimately it became the mode by which conflicting claims to title, as well as possession, were adjudicated. Gradually also the claim for substantial damages or mesne profits beyond the nominal damages in the main action came to be severed from the ejectment; and on judgment for the latter, the Courts treated the unlawful possession as a continuing trespass for which an action lay." REFERENCES: Minaker v. Minaker, [1949] S.C.R. 397 Categories & Topics: Ancient Common Law Dictionary Real Estate and Tenancy Law Dictionary Find you are constantly looking up definitions? Try our search provider (works in most modern browsers) If you find an error or omission in Duhaime's Legal Dictionary, or if you have legal term suggestion, we'd love to hear from you!