THE GROUND GAME ACT 183 



Tlie term ' occupier ' is not defined by the Act, 

 but may be taken to mean the person for the time 

 being lawfully entitled to and exercising the exclusive 

 possession of land. Certain persons are expressly 

 declared not to be occupiers (Sect, i, subsect. 2) ; for 

 example, 'a person having merely a right of common,' 

 and ' a person occupying land for grazing purposes for 

 a period not exceeding nine months.' These excep- 

 tions will be considered further on. 



A landlord in occupation of his own land has been 

 decided to be not an occupier within the meaning of 

 the Act.^ But an outgoing tenant who 'holds over' 

 for the purpose of getting in his crops has been held 

 to be an occupier, so as to maintain or resist an action 

 for trespass.' So also persons permitted by the tenant 

 to use small pieces of ground for the purpose of growing 

 potatoes have been held to be ' occupiers.' ^ When a 

 tenant sublets his land, he ceases to be an occupier 

 for the purposes of the Ground Game Act. 



Whether the purchaser of a standing crop from an 

 outgoing tenant having a right to be on the land for 



' Smith V. Hunt, 54 Law Times Reports, 422. This case 

 will be considered further on when we come to discuss the right 

 of an owner to set spring traps aboveground. See p. 203. 



■^ Boraston z/. Green, 16 East 71 ; and Griffiths z;. Puleston, 

 13M. .\:W. 358. 



•' Grecnslade z\ Tapscott, 3 L. J. Ex. 328. 



