TIMBER CUTTING DAMAGES

Information from the County Attorney's Office

By Steven J. Franzen, Campbell County Attorney

The Kentucky Court of Appeals recently rendered an unpublished decision dealing with an issue sometimes known as “Tree Piracy” and the appropriate damages when someone cuts timber off another’s property without the other person’s consent.  In the case mentioned above, a landowner contracted for the removal and sale timber located on the landowner’s property.  During the removal, the contractor also removed a single walnut tree from another landowner’s property whose property shared a common boundary.

In this case, the adjacent landowner who lost the walnut tree sued under Kentucky Tree Piracy statute (KRS 364.130) for treble damages and legal costs, including attorney’s fees.  The Circuit Court found in favor of the adjacent landowner and attributed damages equally between the landowner and the contractor in the total amount of three times the value of the tree or $1,853.25.  The Circuit Court Judge also awarded attorney’s fees in the amount of $21,100.00.  The Court of Appeals subsequently upheld the award. 

This case deals with a problem in Kentucky known as “Tree Piracy” whereby someone would go onto another person’s land without consent and cut and remove valuable trees.  If the landowner could only sue for the value lost, such would not be much of a deterrent to future thefts.  Therefore, the Kentucky legislature in 1956 passed a statute (KRS 134.130) that provides that any person who cuts down timber growing upon the land of another shall pay to the rightful owner of the timber three times the stumpage value of the timber, three times (treble) the cost of any damages caused to the real estate itself and also shall pay all legal costs incurred by the owner of the timber.  The treble damages could be limited in some circumstances through advanced notice before cutting occurred.  Treble damages could also be limited because of a 2017 Legislative amendment that exempts treble damages from resulting when a residential property or farmland owner maintaining a fence row unintentionally removes timber based on a good-faith mistake as to the location of an unmarked boundary line.   

Requiring the timber thief to pay three times the value of the timber lost and three times the damages caused to the property along with all other legal costs incurred by the owner of the timber, as in this case, would certainly seem to deter that type of conduct.

Beyond the ability to obtain relief through civil litigation, an intentional theft may also allow for reporting and requesting misdemeanor or felony criminal theft charges to be filed.  However, this is rarely prosecuted because (1) the costs involved to determine the amount or value of the trees stolen; and (2) the intent of the actor(s) removing the trees. 

Landowners can help protect themselves from timber theft by making sure to have clearly marked boundary lines, keeping in contact with adjacent property owners, and walking the property on a regular basis.  If you are a victim, you should contact an attorney to assist you.  For more information on timber theft, you can visit the Kentucky Division of Forestry website at: http://forestry.ky.gov/LandownerServices/Pages/TimberTheftandTrespass.aspx.   

If you have any topics you would like to have covered in this column, please contact my office by e-mail at countyattorney@campbellcountyky.gov, by phone at (859) 491-7700 or by regular mail addressed to 319 York Street, Newport, Kentucky 41071.

LIABILITY TO TRESPASSERS

Information from the County Attorney's Office

By Steven J. Franzen, Campbell County Attorney

A reader of this column asked that I address the liability of a property owner to a trespasser onto the property that gets hurt on the property.  This could include such persons as hunters, bicycle riders, quad runners or just kids walking onto the land.

There is a Kentucky law and many court decisions that deal with this issue.  KRS 381.232 states that “The owner of real estate shall not be liable to any trespasser for injuries sustained by the trespasser on the real estate of the owner, except for injuries which are intentionally inflicted by the owner or someone acting for the owner.”  Kentucky statute also defines a trespasser to be “any person who enters or goes upon the real estate of another without any right, lawful authority or invitation, either expressed or implied, but does not include persons who come within the scope of the ‘attractive nuisance’ doctrine.”

Therefore, if someone comes upon your property without your consent and gets injured, you as the property owner are not liable unless you somehow intended that the person be injured.  For instance, if you put a cable across a road going onto your property and the cable was very visible as a result of its size or had some flags or other markings on it and someone drove their bike through the cable and was injured, you would not be liable.  However, if you hung a very thin cable that could not easily be seen with the thought of raking someone off of their bike if they tried to go down the road, then you could possibly be held liable in that you may have intended the trespasser to be injured.

Also, as mentioned above, a trespasser is not someone who comes within the scope of the “attractive nuisance” doctrine.  The attractive nuisance doctrine basically indicates that if you have something on your property that in effect attracts children or others onto your property and they are thereby injured, then that person would not be considered a trespasser and you could be held liable for their injuries.  For instance, if you owned a cattle farm next to a subdivision with young children and you placed a watering trough close to the subdivision, then you could possibly be held liable if a young child drowned in the watering trough because it was an attractive nuisance to the child who may have thought the watering trough was a wading pool.

If you own land and people are trespassing upon it, I would suggest first of all putting up signs at the locations where you think people are entering the land, stating “Private Property-No Trespassing” and that you also tell the trespassers, or better yet, give them a written notice and keep a copy, to stay off your land.  If the trespasser is then hurt, you would not be liable for their injuries except as noted above.  If people still trespass on your land after signs are posted and they have been told to stay off, you could file a police report and request that a criminal trespass charge be filed against the trespasser which carries a fine of up to $250.00 and up to ninety (90) days in jail for entering onto land when notice against trespassing is given by fencing or other enclosure and a fine of up to $250.00 only for trespassing upon property.

If you have any topics you would like to have covered in this column, please contact my office by e-mail at countyattorney@campbellcountyky.gov, by phone at 491-7700 or by regular mail addressed to 319 York Street, Newport, Kentucky 41071.