ABSTRACT
Trespass by cattle, the subject of Coase’s Parable of the Farmer and the Rancher, is a common event in ranching country. A complex body of law, much of it of unusually ancient lineage, formally applies to these occurrences. In Shasta County, the rules of trespass law vary between open- and closed-range districts, and the location of district boundaries has been the focus of intense political controversy. The rural Shasta County population includes deviants who do not adequately control their livestock and run up excessive debts in their informal accounts with their neighbors. Frank Ellis was notoriously indifferent about his reputation among his neighbors. Even in open range in Shasta County an animal owner is legally liable for animal-trespass damages of three significant sorts. The chapter describes in greater detail how the norms of neighborliness operate and how deviants who violate these norms are informally controlled. It identifies another set of deviants: trespass victims who actually invoke their formal legal rights.
