Case Name: Pettingill and another, Appellants, vs. Goulet, Respondent
Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Wisconsin
Decision Date: 1908-12-15
Citations: 137 Wis. 285
Docket Number: 
Parties: Pettingill and another, Appellants, vs. Goulet, Respondent.
Judges: Barnes, J. I concur in the foregoing opinion of Mr. Justice MARSHALL.
Reporter: Wisconsin Reports
Volume: 137
Pages: 285–292

Head Matter:
Pettingill and another, Appellants, vs. Goulet, Respondent.
November 28 —
December 15, 1908.
Replevin: “Timber:” Trespass: Measure of recovery.
Trees felled and cut into cordwood by a trespasser, which had attained such size.as, in the use of forest products, to he commonly regarded as timber suitable for manufacture into a marketable product, are within the calls of sec. 4269, Stats. (1898), providing the rule for assessment of damages for wrongfully cutting timber.
Appeal from a judgment of the circuit court for Bayfield county: John K. Paeish, Circuit Judge.
Reversed.
This is an action in replevin to recover possession of certain railroad ties and cordwood. The answer was a general denial. The sheriff seized forty cords of the wood; the defendant gave a redelivery "bond, and this property was returned to him. The evidence showed that the wood was cut by the defendant from the plaintiffs’ land. The defendant offered to permit plaintiffs to take judgment for the sum of $50 and costs. By direction of the court the jury found, that the plaintiffs were entitled to the goods described in the complaint and that the defendant unjustly took and unlawfully detained the same. The question of value was covered by three findings in the verdict:
“(3) That the total value of said ties cut from timber upon plaintiffs’ land is the sum of $16.60. (4) That the total value of the maple, oak, and birch cordwood stumpage before the same was cut by the defendant was $10./T5. (5) That the value of said maple, oak, and birch firewood or cordwood was $140.50 after the same was cut.”
Appellants objected to the admission of evidence of the stumpage value of the cordwood, and excepted to the ruling of the court in submitting this question to the jury. The court denied plaintiffs’ motion for judgment for the value of the wood after it had been cut by the defendant, and ordered judgment in plaintiffs’ favor for the value of the ties, together with the stumpage value of the cordwood before it was cut, with costs up to the time of defendant’s offer of judgment. This is an appeal from the judgment so ordered.
The cause was submitted for the appellants on the brief of G. F. Mon'is, and for the respondent on a brief signed by Ernest Sauve, attorney, and A. W. McLeod> of counsel.

Opinion:
Siebeckee, T.
It is claimed that the court erred in restricting the damages caused by the felling and the removal of the trees, which were cut into cordwood, to their stumpage value, and in not holding that the value of the product of these trees, in the form of cordwood at the time it was re-plevied, was the true measure of damages. No exemplary damages are claimed, but it is urged that plaintiffs are entitled to have their damages assessed under the statutory rule declared in see. 4269, Stats. (1898). This section provides that: "In all actions to recover the possession or value of logs, timber or lumber wrongfully cut upon the land of the plaintiff or to recover damages for such trespass the highest market value of such logs, timber or lumber," etc., shall be awarded the plaintiff. The words "logs, timber or lumber" must be understood as the legislature intended to apply them in view of the mischief sought to be remedied. This court in Single v. Schneider, 30 Wis. 670, held that, in replevin to recover the value of logs wrongfully cut and taken from plaintiff's land, the measure of recovery was the value of the properly before it was improved by the defendant's labor and skill, unless the taking was accompanied by circumstances which justified the imposition of exemplary damages. At the next session of the legislature after the decision an act was passed which is substantially embodied in the present sec. 4269, Stats. 1898 (Tuttle v. Wilson, 52 Wis. 643, 9 N. W. 822), and which radically changed the measure of damages in actions to recover the possession or value of logs, timber, or lumber wrongfully cut upon plaintiff's land or for the recovery of damages for such trespass. In the instant case the trial court held that plaintiffs were not entitled to the measure of damages provided by this statute for the trees converted into cordwood, and therefore awarded recovery only for the stumpage value of the trees so felled and converted into cordwood.
The evidence discloses that the trees so felled and cut into cordwood bad attained the size of trees which, in the use of forest products, are commonly regarded as timber suitable for manufacture into a marketable product. We are persuaded that the legislature intended that such trees, when wrongfully cut and removed, should he deemed within sec. 4269, Stats. (1898), and also intended by this section to grant the owner of them the right to recover the measure of damages provided therein, regardless of the condition into which they might have been converted by the trespasser. We perceive no good reason why the cordwood made from such trees should not he embraced within the statute. This application of the statute operates to accomplish the purposes of the law, and affords no more than a just relief to persons whose timber has been wrongfully felled and removed from their lands. Upon these considerations we are of opinion that plaintiffs were entitled, under the facts of this case, to recover the highest market value of the cordwood so cut out of such timber. This the jury found to he $140.50. Such measure of damages was applied in the following eases: Brewster v. Carmichael, 39 Wis. 456; Haseltine v. Mosher, 51 Wis. 443, 8 N. W. 273; Gerhardt v. Swaty, 57 Wis. 24, 14 N. W. 851.
The verdict of the jury specially finds the amount plaintiffs are entitled to recover under this statutory rule, hence no retrial of the action need be had. Judgment for the amount so found should have been awarded plaintiffs instead of the lesser sum found, by the jury to be the stumpage value of the trees so converted.
By ithe Gourf. — The judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded to the trial court with directions to enter judgment in accordance with this opinion.