remedies. The act of a person who has been deprived of the custody of another to which he is legally entitled, by which he regains the peaceable custody of such person; or of the owner of personal or real property who has been deprived of his possession, by which he retakes possession, peaceably. In each of these cases the law allows the recaption of the person or of the property, provided he can do so without occasioning a breach of the peace, or an injury to a third person who has not been a party to the wrong. 2. Recaption may be made of a person, of personal property, of real property; each of these will be separately examined. 3. 1. The right of recaption of a person is confined to a husband in re-taking his wife; a parent, his child, of whom he has the custody; a master, his apprentice and, according to Blackstone, a master, his servant; but this must be limited to a servant who assents to the recaption; in these cases, the party injured may peaceably enter the house of the wrongdoer, without a demand being first made, the outer door being open, and take and carry away the person wrongfully detained. He may also enter peaceably into the house of a person harboring, who was not concerned in the original abduction. 8 Bing. R. 186; S. C. 21 Engl. C. L. Rep. 265. 4. 2. The same principles extend to the right of recaption of personal property. In this sort of recaption, too much care cannot be observed to avoid any personal injury or breach of the peace. 5. 3. In the recaption of real estate the owner may, in the absence of the occupier, break open the outer door of a house and take possession; but if, in regaining his possession, the party be guilty of a forcible entry and breach of the peace, he may be indicted; but the wrongdoer or person who had no right to the possession, cannot sustain any action for such forcible regaining possession merely. 1 Chit. Pr. 646.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
A retaking, or taking hack. A species of remedy by the mere act of the party injured, (otherwise termed “reprisal,”) which happens when any one has deprived another of his property in goods or chattels personal, or wrongfully detains one’s wife, child, or servant In this case, the owner of the goods, and the husband, parent or master may lawfully claim and retake them, wherever he happens to find them, so it be not in a riotous manner, or attended with a breach of the peace. 3 Inst 134; 3 Bl. Comm. 4; 3 Steph. Comm. 358; Prigg v. Pennsylvania, 16 Pet 612, 10 L. Ed. 1060. It also signifies the taking a second distress of one formerly distrained during the plea grounded on the former distress. Also a writ to recover damages for him, whose goods, being distrained for rent in service, etc., are distrained again for the same cause, pending the plea in the county court, or before the justice. Fitzh. Nat Brev. 71.