mesne profits

2 definitions found

mesne profits - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Mesne \Mesne\, a. [Cf. Mean intermediate.] (Law)
     Middle; intervening; as, a mesne lord, that is, a lord who
     holds land of a superior, but grants a part of it to another
     person, in which case he is a tenant to the superior, but
     lord or superior to the second grantee, and hence is called
     the mesne lord.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Mesne process, intermediate process; process intervening
        between the beginning and end of a suit, sometimes
        understood to be the whole process preceding the
        execution. --Blackstone. --Burrill.
  
     Mesne profits, profits of premises during the time the
        owner has been wrongfully kept out of the possession of
        his estate. --Burrill.
        [1913 Webster] Meso

mesne profits - Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) :

  MESNE PROFITS, torts, remedies. The value of the premises, recovered in 
  ejectment, during the time that the lessor of the plaintiff has been 
  illegally kept out of the possession of his estate by the defendant; such 
  are properly recovered by an action of trespass, quare clausum fregit, after 
  a recovery in ejectment. 11 Serg. & Rawle, 55; Bac. Ab. Ejectment, H; 3 Bl. 
  Com. 205. 
       2. As a general rule, the plaintiff is entitled to recover for such 
  time as be can prove the defendant to have been in possession, provided he 
  does not go back beyond six years, for in that case, the defendant may plead 
  the statute of limitations. 3 Yeates' R, 13; B. N. P. 88. 
       3. The value of improvements made by the defendant, may be set off 
  against a claim for mesne profits, but profits before the demise laid, 
  should be first deducted from the value of the improvement's. 2 W. C. C. R. 
  165. Vide, generally, Bac. Ab. Ejectment, H; Woodf. L. & T. ch. 14, s. 3; 2 
  Sell. Pr. 140; Fonb. Eq. Index, h.t.; Com. L & T. Index, h.t.; 2 Phil. Ev. 
  208; Adams on Ej. ch. 13; Dane's Ab. Index, h.t.; Pow. Mortg. Index, h.t.; 
  Bouv. Inst. Index, h.t.