40.240 - Forcible detainer defined.

40.240  Forcible detainer defined.  Every person is guilty of a forcible detainer who either:

      1.  By force, or by menaces or threats of violence, unlawfully holds and keeps the possession of any real property, whether the same was acquired peaceably or otherwise; or

      2.  Who, in the nighttime, or during the absence of the occupant of any real property, unlawfully enters thereon, and who, after demand made for the surrender thereof, refuses for a period of 3 days to surrender the same to such former occupant. The occupant of real property within the meaning of this subsection is one who, within 5 days preceding such unlawful entry, was in the peaceable and undisturbed possession of such lands.

      [1911 CPA § 645; RL § 5587; NCL § 9134]