Treble Damages
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary · Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
In actions arising ex contractu, some statutes give treble damages, and these statutes have been liberally construed to mean actually treble damages; for example, if the jury give twenty dollars damages for a forcible entry, the court will award forty dollars more, so as to make the total amount of damages sixty dollars.
4 Bam. & C. 154; Mc Clel. 567.
The construction on the words "treble damages" is different from that which has been put on the words "treble costs."
See 6 Serg. & R. (Pa.) 288; 1 Browne (Pa.) 9; 1 Cow. (N. Y.) 160, 175, 176, 584; 8 Cow. (N. Y.) 115.