Cutting down trees without permission can get you into trouble. That’s the lesson of Blust v Lamar Advertising. Here are the facts.
- In Sept 1988 Lamar leased land for a billboard in Miami Ohio Township from James Weber. John and Jean Blust owned the land adjacent to the billboard site. The Weber and Blust properties were separated by a wire fence.
- Lamar hired Woody’s Tree Medics to remove brush and trees on the Weber site which were obscuring the billboard. Weber instructed Lamar to use the fence line as a guide for tree cutting. While conducting the work the crew entered the Blust’s property and cut down 34 trees. The Blust’s tenant told the crew they were cutting trees on the wrong property. John Blust called Lamar to tell them they did not have permission to remove the trees on his property. Nevertheless, Lamar removed the trees.
- The Blust’s sued for damages. A trial court awarded them $32,000 in compensatory damages plus $2.2 million in punitive damages.
- In May 2004 an Ohio appeals court found that the $2.2 million in punitive damages was neither reasonable nor proportionate to the wrong committed under federal constitutional standards and sent the case back to the trial court for a new calculation of punitive damages. The Court cited State Farm v Campbell language that “in practice, few awards exceeding a single-digit ratio between punitive and compensatory damages…will satisfy due process” while in this case the punitive damages were 70 times the compensatory damages.
- A trial court awarded the Blust’s $66,000 in punitive damages but no attorney’s fees. The Blust’s appealed and in 2009 an Ohio Appeals court awarded them $88,250 in attorney’s fees in addition to compensatory and punitive damages.
Insider’s take: Avoid cutting down someone else’s trees or you will be liable for compensatory and punitive damages. Lamar dodged a bullet here but paid $186,250 in addition to its own legal fees for cutting 34 trees.
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