Opinion ID: 2330436
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Similar statutes

Text: ¶ 35 Courts interpreting identical or similar statutes reject punitive damages for fires spreading from defendants' lands. For example, in Osborne v. Hurst, 947 P.2d 1356, 1361 (Alaska 1997), the Supreme Court of Alaska found that its nearly identical timber trespass statute did not apply where the defendant set a grass fire that spread out of control and destroyed the plaintiff's trees because the defendant did not act with intent. Id. In Jordan v. Stevens Forestry Services, Inc., 430 So.2d 806 (La.Ct.App.1983), the Court of Appeals of Louisiana found that a defendant, who had lost control of a deliberately set burn on his own property, was not liable for treble damages because he did not engage in any willful or intentional acts ... which resulted in the destruction of [the plaintiff's] trees. Id. at 809. But because we are concerned with the defendants' conduct and location, not the defendants' intent, these cases are of little help to us.