840.03.Real property remedies.

Section 840.03 gathers the remedies available to a person with an interest in real property into one list and lets them be mixed and matched. A plaintiff may demand a declaration of interest, extinguishment or foreclosure of another’s interest, partition, enforcement of an interest, judicial rescission of a contract, specific performance of a contract or covenant, judicial sale of property with allocation of proceeds, restitution, judicial conveyance of an interest, possession, or immediate physical possession. The list also reaches restraint of another’s use of, activity on, or encroachment on land the plaintiff has an interest in, restraint of another’s use, activity, or disposition affecting land the plaintiff has no interest in but that nonetheless affects the plaintiff’s interest, restraint of interference with rights in, on, or to land, and damages.

These remedies can be demanded singly, in any combination with each other, or in combination with other remedies not on this list, unless a particular situation specifically denies the use of a given remedy. That flexibility means a single lawsuit over a property dispute does not have to be artificially narrowed to one theory of relief.

Subsection (2) protects that flexibility going forward. When a later chapter deals with a particular remedy and describes the form or kind of judgment for it, that description does not limit the availability of other remedies appropriate to the situation. A chapter’s focus on one remedy is not read as excluding the rest.