Minnesota became a territory on March 3, 1849, and Minnesota’s first territorial laws were established in 1851. Eviction actions, then called Unlawful Detainer actions, were covered primarily in Chapter 87 of these territorial laws, which began:

No person or persons shall hereafter make an entry into lands, tenements, or other possessions, but in cases where entry is given by law; and in such cases, not with strong hands, nor with a multitude of people, but only in a peaceable manner; and if any person from henceforth do to the contrary, and thereof be duly convicted, he shall be punished by fine.

This statute, which persists today in a slightly modified form, laid out the purpose of the eviction process—a legal method for recovery of possession of premises.

This article summarizes the history and evolution of the residential eviction process in Minnesota. The article documents the residential eviction process as established in Minnesota’s first territorial statutes, the significant changes that have occurred since then, and the resulting statutes in place today. The purpose of this summary is to provide an easily accessible context to a process that has affected hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans over the course of this state’s history.