Case Name: Preserved B. Mills versus John Richardson
Court: Maine Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Maine
Decision Date: 1857
Citations: 44 Me. 79
Docket Number: 
Parties: Preserved B. Mills versus John Richardson.
Judges: 
Reporter: Maine Reports
Volume: 44
Pages: 79–80

Head Matter:
Preserved B. Mills versus John Richardson.
A tenant in common of undivided lands is liable to treble damages for cutting timber on the common estate without proper notice, or for cutting during the pendency of a petition for partition.
Trespass quarc clausum is the proper form of action to recover such damages.
Trespass guare clausum against the defendant, who was part owner, in common with the plaintiff, of the lot on which the cutting of timber was alleged.
Appleton, J., presiding at Nisi Prius, to whom the action was referred, with the right to except to his rulings of the law reserved, determined that the action in this form could be maintained. Exceptions to this ruling were taken by the defendant.
A. G. Wakefield, counsel for the plaintiff.
S. H. Blake, counsel for the defendant.

Opinion:
Hathaway, J.
By R. S., ch. 129, s. 7, a tenant in. common of undivided lands is subjected to the forfeiture and payment of treble damages for cutting timber, &c., on the common estate, without having given the preliminary notice required by the statute; or, for cutting timber, &c., on the same estate pending a petition for partition.
The only question of law presented by this case, is, whether or not an action of trespass guare clausum, can be maintained to recover such damages, and that question has been decided in the affirmative by this court in Maxwell v. Maxwell, 31 Maine R., 184.
Exceptions overruled.
Judgment of the court at Nisi Prius affirmed.