Oh I dunno..........sometimes judges find humor in reporting their decrees.
Excerpt from: http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:4XL1vi_nSdwJ:www.rmlaw.com/newsletters/ill_winter_1998_issue.pdf+Judge+awards+%24+for+unlawful+removal+of+tree&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
WOODMAN SPARE THAT TREEFACTS:Castello did hire Hayes to go onto his land and to fill in his ravine. And Hayes went ontothe property of good neighbor Wilson, and he did wantonly remove her trees, and hershrubbery and her fence. And then he did the same for neighbors Birchler and Lang.And the neighbors were sorely annoyed, and did cry out in a loud voice, “Oh what is thestate of this land when one’s own shrubbery is not safe.”But there did dwell in that land called King, a wise judge and a wise jury composed of 12good persons and true. And the jury did speak with one voice: damages are $17,000,$17,000, and $13,250. And the wise Judge saw that and said: “Good, now I am going totriple that up to $141,750.” And the jury went on to say: “$2000 a piece in damages formaking the neighbors upset.” The judge did not triple that.And the despoilers of the shrubbery did seek redress in a higher court located in a greattall structure of glass and steel in the center of the business district in the city of Seattle inthe land of King. But those judges were unmoved.And so the shrubbery despoilers took their plea to the most high temple of justice locatedfar to the south in the town of Olympia in the land called Thurston. And five of the mosthigh justices did tell the despoilers to come closer for it does sound as if you present aninteresting issue. But after hearing from the despoilers’ advocate the nine high justices didspeak, for once, with a single voice and they did say to the despoilers: “you lose.”HOLDINGS:(1) RCW 64.12.030 creates a punitive damages remedy, trebling damages forinjury to, or removal of, trees, or shrubs, when a person trespasses on the land of another.This treble damage remedy is only available when the trespass is “willful.”(2) The purpose of the statute: to punish trespassers, to prevent careless or inten-tional removal of trees and vegetation from property, and to roughly compensate land-owners for their losses(3) The measure of damages in a case involving injury to or destruction ofresidential/ornamental trees or shrubs is the restoration or replacement cost for thevegetation.(4) The timber trespass statute sounds in tort. Trespass is an intentional tort.3
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