Court case(1765) 19 St Tr 1029

John Entick was a writer associated with a periodical critical of the government, "The Monitor". The Earl of Halifax, one of the Secretaries of State, issued a warrant directing the King's messengers, Nathan Carrington and three others, to search for Entick and to seize him together with his books and papers, on suspicion of seditious writings. In November 1762 the messengers entered Entick's house by force, stayed for about four hours, broke open locked rooms, desks and boxes, read his private papers and carried away a large quantity of books and papers. Entick sued them for trespass. A jury awarded him damages, subject to the court's opinion on whether the warrant was a legal justification.

The Court of Common Pleas, in the judgment of Lord Camden CJ, held the messengers liable. No statute or common-law rule gave a Secretary of State power to issue such a warrant; the argument that it was necessary for the State, or that such warrants had long been issued, was no justification, because "with respect to the argument of State necessity ... the common law does not understand that kind of reasoning". Lord Camden stated the principle: "By the laws of England, every invasion of private property, be it ever so minute, is a trespass. No man can set his foot upon my ground without my licence, but he is liable to an action, though the damage be nothing." The burden was on the defendants to show a positive legal authority for their entry; they could not, so the jury's verdict for Entick stood.