9.5 “Threats Only” Evictions

In some cases, a landlord may be liable for wrongful eviction even where threats alone interfere with the tenant’s peaceful possession and/or cause the tenant to vacate.1  However, at least one court has ruled that the tenant’s physical access to the property must be barred to constitute a wrongful eviction.2

• 1Mansur v. Cox, 2004-0140 (La. App. 1 Cir. 12/30/04), 898 So. 2d 446, 448–49 (finding landlord liable for damages where tenant tried to move during lease and landlord confronted and fired gun while tenant was moving); Pelleteri v. Caspian Grp., 2002-2141, 2002-2142 (La. App. 4 Cir. 07/02/03), 851 So. 2d 1230 (landlord liable for wrongful eviction after threatening to padlock property, which caused tenant to remove most of his items, but landlord did actually padlock the property later).
• 2Lebeau v. Saxon Mortg. Servs., 2018-0199 (La. App. 4 Cir. 04/17/19), 269 So. 3d 970, 975 (verbally ordering tenant off property and changing some but not all of the locks did not constitute wrongful eviction because mortgagor was not denied physical entry to the property).