Court case(1754) Sayer 138

The plaintiff went up a ladder for the purpose of fixing a notice board on the defendant's land. The defendant threw him off the ladder, and the plaintiff fell and was injured. Sued for battery, the defendant pleaded in justification that the plaintiff was a trespasser on his land, that he had "gently shaken" the ladder in defence of his possession, which was a little shaking, and that the plaintiff had fallen in consequence. The case turned on the sufficiency of this plea, which itself described the force the defendant had used.

The court held that the plea was no justification and gave judgment for the plaintiff. The force described was out of all proportion to the threat: throwing a man off a ladder, or shaking the ladder so that he fell, was not a justifiable means of defending one's land against a mere trespass of this kind. A possessor of land may resist a trespasser, but only with such force as is reasonable; he should first have requested the plaintiff to desist and then used only moderate force to remove him.