This is purely hypthetical scenario and I’m not asking for legal advice. Suppose Jedediah parks in Svetlana’s driveway without her consent. Svetlana gets home and can’t get into her garage so she parks behind him blocking him in. A few hours later Jedediah shows up (it turns out he was at a party thrown by one of Svetlana’s neighbors). He asks her to move her car, she refuses. Is she breaking a law? What if instead of blocking him in with her car she put a Denver-boot on it? She isn’t damaging the car, she’s just waiting until it’s convenient for her to move her car.
Traffic laws are different everywhere, so who knows. I’m sure numerous municipalities have an ordinance that prohibits one from blocking a driveway. This probably counts for your own driveway, too, if such an ordinance exists.
I’ll guess that no, that’s not legal. Courts seem to frown on “self-help” remedies in most situations (exceptions include self-defense, some evictions, some repossessions, and probably a few others). By leaving his car there, Jedediah is committing the tort of trespass; she could have his car towed, but effecting what’s basically an impound looks to me like a tort on her part, called “trespass to chattels.” From my first-year notes:
He’s lost the use of his car due to her “exercise of substantial dominion” over it, so she’s probably in the wrong by doing this. It will be hard for him to establish much in the way of damages unless something big happens to him (e.g., missing a business meeting) as a result of her blocking him in, though.
Putting a boot on his car is probably closer to an actual conversion than just blocking him in. If he’s blocked in, he could theoretically get out, maybe by driving over a bush or having her car towed, but I believe a boot requires a key or a locksmith; it’s more possessive than blocking him in. This is just a guess, though.
Standard disclaimer: IANAL. I’m a third-year law student, but I have no experience in this stuff and haven’t studied torts since my first year, which seems like a lifetime ago.
But can Jedediah have her car parked on her propery towed? Could she then sue the tow company for theft?
There was a parking thread once before that asked essentially the same question, and IIRC the Doper who blocked the illegal parker was not held responsible by the PD. That outcome is quite possibly dependent on location.
If I were called to this (I’m a cop), I would tell Svetlana that if she didn’t let him have his car she could be arrested for theft. After all, she has taken his property from him without lawful authority. She could have had it impounded, but keeping it herself wouldn’t be allowed.
Jebediah has no authority to have her car towed.
Unless the property is posted for no trespassing, Jebediah wouldn’t be charged with trespass.
This is all under Washington state law. YMMV in other places.
Svetlana is being mulish or a HA.
Granted she is annoyed and inconvenienced.
BUT the prudent thing to do is to tell Jedediah he had parked in her driveway without permission and henceforth is not to do so again, ever.
Then move her car and let him go, properly chastised.
So what if Svetlana had a few drinks after she got home? She clearly would be unable to operate her car then.
In a related story, a friend of mine had a small company with very limited parking in a popular shopping area. He had two spaces out front in a tiny two space lot for the building he was in. There was a very large sign in front of those two spaces which read “Parking for X company only. All other towed”.
He came to work one day to find a shopper decided to park in his spot. He parked right behind her blocking her car in.
She showed up about 30 minutes later while he was on a call. He waved her in and had her sit in his office while he finished the call - which took about an hour. After he hung up, she explained it was her car and he blocked her in. He started to ask her if she saw the No Parking sign but before she could answer another call came in. He made her sit though that one as well - 30-45 minutes.
Then he moved his car.
Classy guy.
Seriously? Why wouldn’t “no trespassing” be considered the default rule, posted or not?
Why not? One of the rights of a property-holder is to exclude others from her property. If someone puts something on her property without her permission, your position is that she has no right to remove it? how long can he leave the car on her property?
If the land isn’t posted to bar trespassing, does that mean that she can’t have the police tow it off either, since no crime has been committed?
Would the same thing apply if he put a box of tools on her front lawn without her permisision? would you say that she has no right to move the tools off her lawn?
Jebediah isn’t the property owner in the hypothetical; Svetlana is. She certainly has the right to have his car towed off of her property - he doesn’t necessarily have the right to tow (or otherwise move) her car if it is preventing him from driving his car off her property.
I would offer to move it for her, of course. 
For someone to trespass, they have to know (or should reasonably know) that they do not have permission to be in a place. A driveway has a lot less protection than other parts of your property, since any visitor would be expected to be there.
I can imagine some variations of the OP where I could charge Jebediah with trespass. Generally, just parking in a driveway wouldn’t be enough.
(bolding mine)
Um, any vistor to Svetlana would be expected to park there, why would vistors to someone else be expected to park there?
I don’t know what beach community you’re a cop in, but I sure hope it’s not mine, seeing as how, at least in this jurisdiction, you would be incorrect. The relevant statute can be found here:
So yeah, park in my driveway without my express permission and you’re trespassing. I can call the police and then have you towed.
See this post that retells a real-life version of exactly the scenario described in the OP. The offending trespasser in that case ended up being hauled away in handcuffs. Though it’s unclear as to why and on what charge, it may very well have been because the cops had a right to haul him in for the trespass, might otherwise have chosen not to, but did in this case because the guy was being such a dick about it. Still, it was sweet justice no matter the reason.
All I know is, I have GOT to practice my egg juggling, and my wife only lets me practice in the driveway. I’m getting pretty good, but heck, there’ll always be accidents, especially if I have to dodge someone else’s car during my elaborate routine.
First of all, a lot of posters are posting legal advice without much in the way of qualification for so doing. And the advice appears to be about as useful as free legal advice ever is.
Second, as has already been stated, very early in the thread, too, the result would depend on the jurisdiction. Without knowing the jurisdiction of the OP, it’s impossible to answer the question intelligently. :dubious:
…and then when he goes in to take another call, I would smash his headlights with a golf club (at least when I was around college age). Have a nice drive home tonight.
Legal or not, that’s the risk you take when you block someone in. They may end up taking their frustrations out on your car. So make sure you have a crappier car.
We had problems in college with neighboring fraternities parking in our lot. Sometimes we’d box them in with a pair of shitbox cars parked with 6" of clearance so they can’t open the doors. They won’t hurt the cars because when your BMW is blocked in by a Dodge with the door from a Buick and an old Oldsmobile with no hubcaps…well…you know. Typically we’d give the car back once the owner would awkwardly ask for it.