Suppose that Bob Boyfriend moves in with Gina Girlfriend. Bob lives in Gina's apartment for several months. He isn't on the lease and doesn't pay rent, but he does buy most of the couple's groceries and does a fair share of the cleaning and other household chores. The relationship sours, and Gina asks Bob to leave. Bob refuses. Gina goes to the magistrate's office and asks the magistrate to issue an arrest warrant charging Bob with trespassing. Should the magistrate issue the warrant? The answer depends on whether Bob is a tenant or a guest. If Bob is a tenant, then he may be "evicted, dispossessed or otherwise constructively or actually removed from his dwelling unit only in accordance with" the eviction procedures in Chapter 42 of the General Statutes. G.S. 42-25.6. In other words, as a Georgia court put it, a "person who lawfully occupies property as a tenant cannot be ejectedfrom the property through a prosecution for criminal trespass."Â Williams v. State, 583 S.E.2d 172 (Ga. Ct. App. 2003). See also People v. Evans, 516 N.E.2d 817 (Ill. Ct. App. 1 Dist. 1987) (explaining that a tenant must be evicted rather than removed using the trespass statutes). On the other hand, if Bob is just a long-term guest, then his failure to leave when told to do so is first-degree trespass under G.S. 14-159.12 (defining first-degree trespass to include when a person "without authorization . . . remains . . . [i]n a building of another"). So, how do we [...]
Faculty Coordinators
