Whenever any person shall cut down, girdle, or otherwise injure, or carry off any tree, including a Christmas tree as defined in *RCW 76.48.020, timber, or shrub on the land of another person, or on the street or highway in front of any person's house, city or town lot, or cultivated grounds, or on the commons or public grounds of any city or town, or on the street or highway in front thereof, without lawful authority, in an action by the person, city, or town against the person committing the trespasses or any of them, any judgment for the plaintiff shall be for treble the amount of damages claimed or assessed.
RCW 64.12.030
Injury to or removing trees, etc.—Damages.
Applied in 62 court decisions — leading case 89 Wash. 2d 190 - Seattle-First National Bank v. Brommers (1977)
Most recently applied in Rebecca Thorley & Monica Baxter v. Donald E. Nowlin, et ux (January 2024)
2009 c 349 s 4; Code 1881 s 602; 1877 p 125 s 607; 1869 p 143 s 556; RRS s 939.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.