eviction
    n 1: action by a landlord that compels a tenant to leave the
         premises (as by rendering the premises unfit for
         occupancy); no physical expulsion or legal process is
         involved [syn: eviction, constructive eviction]
    2: the expulsion of someone (such as a tenant) from the
       possession of land by process of law [syn: eviction,
       dispossession, legal ouster]

Eviction \E*vic"tion\, n. [L. evictio: cf. F. ['e]viction.]
   1. The act or process of evicting; or state of being evicted;
      the recovery of lands, tenements, etc., from another's
      possession by due course of law; dispossession by
      paramount title or claim of such title; ejectment; ouster.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Conclusive evidence; proof. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            Full eviction of this fatal truth.    --South.
      [1913 Webster]

EVICTION. The loss or deprivation which the possessor of a thing suffers, 
either in whole or in part, of his right of property in such a thing, in 
consequence of the right of a third person established before a competent 
tribunal. 10 Rep. 128; 4 Kent,  Com. 475-7; 3 Id. 464-5. 
     2. The eviction may be total or partial. It is total, when the 
possessor is wholly deprived of his rights in the whole thing; partial, when 
he is deprived of only a portion of the thing; as, if he had fifty acres of 
land, and a third person recovers by a better title twenty-five; or, of some 
right in relation to the thing. as, if a stranger should claim and establish 
a right to some easement over the same. When the grantee suffers a total 
eviction, and he has a covenant of seisin, he recovers from the seller, the 
consideration money, with interest and costs, and no more. The grantor has 
no concern with the future rise or fall of the property, nor with the 
improvements made by the purchaser. This seems to be the general rule in the 
United States. 3 Caines' R. 111; 4 John. R. 1; 13 Johns. R. 50; 4 Dall. R. 
441; Cooke's Term. R. 447; 1 Harr. & Munf. 202; 5 Munf. R. 415; 4 Halst. R. 
139; 2 Bibb, R. 272. In Massachusetts, the measure of damages on a covenant 
of warranty, is the value of the land at the time of eviction. 3 Mass. R. 
523; 4 Mass. R. 108. See, as to other states, 1 Bay, R. 19, 265; 3 Des. Eq. 
R. 245; 2 Const. R. 584; 2 McCord's R. 413; 3 Call's R. 326. 
     3. When the eviction is only partial the damages to be recovered under 
the covenant of seisin, are a rateable part of the original price, and they 
are to bear the same ratio to the whole consideration, that the value of 
land to which the title has failed, bears to the value of the whole tract. 
The contract is not rescinded, so as to entitle the vendee to the whole 
consideration money, but only to the amount of the relative value of the 
part lost. 5 Johns. R. 49; 12 Johns. R. 126; Civ. Code of Lo. 2490; 4 Kent's 
Com. 462. Vide 6 Bac. Ab. 44; 1 Saund. R. 204: note 2, and 322 a, note 2; 1 
Bouv. Inst. n. 656.