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Official Code of Georgia Annotated

Title 51. TORTS · Chapter 12. DAMAGES · Article 3. DAMAGES FOR CONVERSION OF TIMBER

51-12-50. Measure of damages for converted timber; presumption.

Active

Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly.

  1. (a)

    When a plaintiff, other than a plaintiff under Code Section 51-12-51, recovers for timber cut or cut and carried away, the measure of damages shall be:#

    1. (1)

      Treble the fair market value of the trees cut as they stood;#

    2. (2)

      Treble the diminished fair market value of any trees incidentally harmed;#

    3. (3)

      Costs of reasonable reforestation activities related to the plaintiff’s injury; and#

    4. (4)

      Attorney fees and expenses of litigation.#

  2. (b)

    When the defendant is a willful trespasser, the plaintiff may also recover punitive damages.#

  3. (c)

    When the boundary lines of the property have been clearly and accurately marked, it shall be presumed that the defendant was a willful trespasser.#

Reading note: a word broken across two lines in the printed volume was joined by rule and could not be checked against the volume's own vocabulary. The official page linked below settles any doubt.

The notes below are printed with the section but are not enacted law (O.C.G.A. § 1-1-1(c)). They are shown apart from the text.

History

Civil Code 1895, § 3918; Civil Code 1910, § 4515; Code 1933, § 105-2013; Ga. L. 2014, p. 695, § 7/HB 790; Ga. L. 2021, p. 584, § 1/HB 90.

Amendments

The 2021 amendment, effective July 1, 2021, substituted “When a plaintiff, other than a plaintiff under Code Section 51-12-51,” for “Except as provided in Code Section 51-12-51, when” at the beginning of subsection (a).

Read the official page (the state's PDF, opened at the page this text was read from).

Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly.

Text read from t51-(v39)-pdf.pdf, Volume V39, 2017 edition, 2025 supplement, pages 102 to 103; merge action: replaced; file SHA-256 9104a04c683d.