Domus sua cuique est tutissimum refugium, (To every one his own house is the safest refuge.) See Broom's Leg. Max.; Semayne's case, (1605) 5 Rep. 91; 1 Sm. L.C., 1, in which the extent of a sheriff's power to break doors was discussed, and five points resolved, the first being that every man's house 'is to him as his castle,' so that he is justified in killing another who breaks into his house to rob or murder him; and a sheriff to execute process may not break an outer door [see per Lord Ellenborough, C.J., in Burdett v. Abbott, (1811) 14 East 157]; neither may a bailiff to distrain for rent, though he may enter through an open window [Crabtree v. Robinson, (1885) 15 QBD 312] or over a wall (Long v. Clarke, 1894 QB 19).
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