H-0398.2  _______________________________________________

                          HOUSE BILL 1172

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      56th Legislature     1999 Regular Session

By Representative Kessler

Read first time 01/18/1999.  Referred to Committee on Natural Resources.

Changing the calculation for damages for injuries to timber, trees, and shrubs.

    AN ACT Relating to providing a statutory minimum judgment amount for injury to timber, trees, or shrubs; and amending RCW 64.12.030.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

    Sec. 1.  RCW 64.12.030 and Code 1881 s 602 are each amended to read as follows:

    Whenever any person ((shall)) cuts down, girdles or otherwise injures, or ((carry)) carries off any tree, timber, or shrub on the land of another person, or on the street or highway in front of any person's house, village, town, or city lot, or cultivated grounds, or on the commons or public grounds of any village, town, or city, or on the street or highway in front thereof, without lawful authority, in an action by such person, village, town, or city against the person committing such trespasses or any of them, if judgment be given for the plaintiff, it shall be given for the greater of five hundred dollars or treble the amount of damages claimed or assessed therefor, as the case may be.

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