FRUITS OVER THE LINE. • 177 



may sometimes abridge or modify this right ; but the ordinary 

 rule is as above stated. 



OVERHANGING TEEES. 



The question often arises who owns the fruit of a tree 

 standing near the boundary-line between two proprietors. 

 It is generally supposed that the fruit on the limbs overhang- 

 ing one's land belongs to him ; hut this is an entire mistake. 

 If a tree stands wholly on your land, although some of the 

 roots extend into the soil of your neighbor and derive sup- 

 port and nourishment from his soil, he has no right to any of 

 the fruit which hangs over the line (11 Conn. 177 ; 38 Vt. 

 105; 25 N. Y. 126) ; and, if he attempts by force to prevent 

 you from picking it, he is liable for an assault and battery 

 (46 Barb. 337; 48 N. Y. 201). 



In one instance a lady, while standing on the fence picking 

 cherries which hung over the line, was forbidden to do so 

 by the adjoining owner, who was at work in his garden; and, 

 in the scuffle to prevent her, she received some bruises on her 

 arm, for which he had the pleasure of paying the neat little 

 sum of a thousand dollars. If your fruit falls into your 

 neighbor's lot, you have, I think, an implied license in law to 

 go and pick it up, doing him no unavoidable damage (113 

 Mass. 376 ; 12 Vt. 273). 



If, however, a fruit-tree stands directly in the division line, 

 and is what is called a " line tree," both parties own the tree 

 and fruit in common, and neither can cut down the tree, or 

 seriously injure it, without being responsible to the other 

 (12 N. H. 454 ; 34 Barb. 547 ; 25 N. Y. 123). 



Sometimes persons are tempted to poison or secretly kill a 

 neighbor's tree of some kind, which stands near the fence, 

 and casts a baneful shade on their garden-plot : but this is 

 dangerous business ; and the party doing so may possibly find 

 himself inside the county jail for a twelvemonth, where the 

 rooms are apt to be small, and not always very clean ! The 

 safer way in such cases is to cut off the limbs which hang 

 over your side, or dig down and cut off the roots, which un- 

 doubtedly you have a legal right to do ; but it would not be 

 safe to use the limbs for firewood, or otherwise convert them 

 to your own use, lest you have to pay their value, more or 

 less. 



