44-8-301 - Damages for failure to keep up fences, or for trespass.
44-8-301. Damages for failure to keep up fences, or for trespass.
It is lawful for two (2) or more owners of adjoining farms to enclose the same under one (1) common fence or enclosure, to be kept up to the standard of a lawful fence by each owner upon that owner's own land, or in such manner and proportion as the owners may agree upon in writing. In the absence of an agreement, the owner of any of the land embraced in the common fence shall be liable to the owners of the other lands and their tenants for all damages to their lands, pastures, fruit trees, crops, or vegetables, occasioned by the failure or neglect of the other owner to keep and maintain the common fence on that owner's land up to the standard of a lawful fence, or by the owner's own stock or that of the owner's tenants trespassing beyond the owner's own land within the common enclosure.
[Acts 1875, ch. 64, § 2; 1897, ch. 48, § 1; Shan., § 3001a1; Code 1932, § 5216; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), §§ 44-1715, 44-9-301.]