Book of Usurpation

Usurpation is the wrongful seizure of another person’s property. Accordingly, if someone mounts another’s animal or sits on his bedding, he is a usurper even though he does not move it. Likewise, whoever enters another’s house and drives him out—or drives him out and takes control of the house without actually entering—is a usurper; about the latter there is a weak alternative opinion. If a person occupies one room and prevents the owner from entering it while leaving him the rest of the house, he has usurped that room alone. Should he enter with the intention of seizing the property while the owner is absent, he is a usurper; if the owner is present and he does not expel him, he is deemed to have usurped half the house, unless he is too weak to be considered as having overpowered the owner.

The usurper must restore the property, and if it perishes in his possession he is liable for it. If he destroys property that is still in its owner’s hand, he is likewise liable. When he uncorks a leather flask lying on the ground so that its contents flow out because of the opening, or the flask is standing upright and, on his opening it, topples and spills, he must compensate; but if it falls over because of a gust of wind, he is not liable. If he opens a bird-cage, agitates the bird, and it flies away, he is liable. If he merely opens the cage, the sounder view is that he is liable when the bird flies off immediately, but not when it first pauses and then flies away.

Every hand that succeeds the usurper’s hand is a hand of liability. If the new holder did not know the item was usurped, then once he learns of it he is treated like a usurper’s transferee, and liability for anything that perishes while with him ultimately rests upon him. The same applies when he was unaware and his possession was already a hand of liability, as in the case of a loan for use. If, however, his hand is a hand of trust, such as a deposit, final liability reverts to the original usurper.

Whenever the person who took from the usurper destroys the property on his own, full liability is his without exception. If the usurper induces him—by serving him stolen food as hospitality, for example, and he eats it—the predominant view is likewise that liability rests on the eater. On this basis, if he serves that food to its rightful owner and the owner consumes it, the usurper is absolved of responsibility.