## Facts

- Richard Bender rented a mobile home lot/trailer under a six-month written lease for \$195 per month; the lease did not state a monthly due date.
- Bender’s rent payments were frequently late, and he fell close to one month behind.
- The mobile home park manager locked Bender out and largely refused him access to retrieve personal belongings.
- The landlord took possession of Bender’s property, stored it, and later sold it in an informal sale for about \$35.
- The landlord claimed authority under Mississippi’s landlord’s lien statute, Miss. Code Ann. § 89-7-51, to seize and dispose of the property for unpaid rent and related charges.
- Bender sued for wrongful eviction and conversion and asserted federal due process and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claims; he also sought to join the State of Mississippi to challenge the statute’s constitutionality.
- After a bench trial, the circuit court dismissed claims against the corporate president individually, denied relief against the manager and president individually, and limited conversion relief largely to an offset against unpaid rent, yielding no net recovery to Bender.

## Issues

1. Whether a landlord may lawfully lock out a tenant and seize/sell the tenant’s personal property without using statutory eviction procedures, based on the landlord’s lien statute.
2. Whether reliance on the landlord’s lien statute to seize and dispose of a tenant’s property without court process violates due process and supports a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim.
3. Whether the trial court erred by limiting conversion damages to a setoff against unpaid rent rather than awarding damages reflecting the value of the converted property.

## Decision

- The Mississippi Supreme Court reversed in part and remanded.
- The court held the landlord’s self-help lockout and seizure of Bender’s property, undertaken without following Mississippi eviction procedures, was unlawful.
- The court rejected the landlord’s attempt to justify its actions solely by invoking the landlord’s lien statute.
- The court held Bender was entitled to conversion damages beyond a mere offset for unpaid rent and remanded for further proceedings on damages.
- The court did not invalidate the landlord’s lien statute on its face, resolving the dispute primarily on state-law grounds.

## Legal Principles

- Mississippi landlords must use statutory eviction procedures; self-help lockouts are not authorized as a substitute for judicial process.
- A landlord’s lien statute does not provide blanket authority to seize and dispose of a tenant’s personal property through unilateral action that bypasses eviction and related procedural requirements.
- Wrongful dominion over a tenant’s personal property, including denial of access followed by seizure and sale, constitutes conversion.
- Conversion damages generally require compensation based on the value of the property wrongfully taken, subject to any proper setoff, rather than limiting recovery to a nominal amount or rent offset.

## Conclusion

The court held that a landlord cannot bypass Mississippi eviction procedures by locking out a tenant and seizing and selling the tenant’s property under a claimed landlord’s lien, and it required reconsideration of damages because wrongful seizure and sale supports full conversion recovery beyond merely crediting unpaid rent.


Bender v. N. Meridian Mobile Home Park, Inc., 636 So. 2d 385 (Miss. 1994)