SUPREME COURT OF THE CANAL ZONE.

ANDRADE versus SAMUDIO and ARIAS.
No. 138. Argued May 27, 1914. Decided June 27, 1914.
TRESPASS.
One rightfully in possession of realty may maintain an action for trespass
quare clausum fregit although he may not have title to the land.
The provision of law requiring the owner of rural property to maintain a
certain type of fence in order to maintain an action for damages for the trespass of cattle upon his land can not be invoked by a defendant who has
driven cattle thereon.
Appeal from the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit; Hon. William H. Jackson, Judge.
The facts appear in the opinion.
Fairman, Maclntyre, and Enderton, for appellant. Hinckley and Ganson and W. H. Carrington, for appellees.
BROWN, J. The plaintiff appeals to this court from a judgmeat in favor of the defendants entered in the Circuit Court of the Second Circuit.
The complaint alleged that the plaintiff was the lessee and in the lawful possession, use, and occupation of certain land and the improvements thereon, siCuated in the Canal Zone and known as the "Banana Field" of the "Hacienda Andrade;" that said tract comprised 54 hectares of land and there were thereon about 30,000 banana plants belonging to the plaintiff; that the defend. ants, as copartners, by their agents and employees, had wilfully, wantonly, and maliciously entered upon said tract and cut down and destroyed the banana plants to the damage of plaintiff, etc.
The answers of the defendants contain a general denial.
At the trial much evidence was introduced with respect to the issues raised by the pleadings. It is not our intention, however, in disposing of this appeal, to discuss this evidence in detail. One phase of it only is of much importance to our purpose.
It appears that in August, 1908, the Isthmian Canal Commis. sion, as the agent of the United States of America, took over all the real estate known as the "Hacienda Andrade" after an award ,of damages had been made to Andrade, the appellant herein, by the Joint Land Commission which was then in session. In Janu. ary, 1909, the United States, by its agent, the Isthmian Canal

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