Volume 54 — Washington Reports, Second Series

[1] DEEDS — CONSTRUCTION — PROPERTY CONVEYED — PARTICULAR DESCRIPTION — UNIT OF MEASURE. In an action to quiet title to real property and for damages for the removal of timber, distances which were specified in a prior deed in chains and links and which were converted to feet in subsequent deeds, referred to linear feet, as distinguished from government measure, where the deed in question was plain, clear, and contained no ambiguity in description, nowhere in the deed were the words government measure used, and no ambiguity was created by using the linear foot as the standard of measurement. [2] APPEAL AND ERROR — ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR — NECESSITY. The absence of an assignment of error to a finding of fact results in the Supreme Court treating such finding as an established fact of the case. [3] TRESPASS — TREBLE DAMAGES — EVIDENCE TO JUSTIFY. Where a person has knowledge of a bona fide boundary dispute, and thereafter consciously enters upon the disputed area for the purpose of destroying, and does destroy, trees or other property which cannot<page_number>Page 484</page_number> be replaced, such acts are neither casual nor involuntary, nor can they be justified upon the basis of probable cause for belief by the tort feasor that he owned the land, but, on the contrary, are without lawful authority and will subject such person to treble damages as provided by statute. [3] See Ann. 111 A.L.R. 79; Am. Jur. Trespass §§ 58-59.