844.01.Physical injury to, or interference with, real property.

Section 844.01 opens chapter 844 by defining the kind of claim the chapter covers. Subsection (1) lets any person owning or claiming an interest in real property sue for physical injury to, or interference with, the property or the person’s interest in it. The action can seek to redress past injury, restrain further injury, abate the source of the injury, or obtain other appropriate relief — the chapter is not limited to money damages.

Subsections (2) and (3) draw the line between the chapter’s two core concepts. Physical injury includes unprivileged intrusions and encroachments, and can be surface, subsurface, or suprasurface — it reaches injury from activities happening on the plaintiff’s own property as well as activities elsewhere that affect the plaintiff’s property. Interference, by contrast, is any activity other than physical injury that lessens the possibility of using or enjoying the interest — harm that does not touch the land physically but still diminishes what the interest is worth having.

Subsection (4) narrows one category: a lessening of a security interest, such as a mortgage, without any physical injury is not actionable under this chapter unless the lessening amounts to waste. A lender whose security cushion shrinks for reasons short of physical injury or waste has no claim under Section 844.01.