Court Opinion

ID: 9665506
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:50:05.554037+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:16.185814
License: Public Domain

*569on Rehearing
HOLMES, Judge.
Able and distinguished counsel for appellees, in a well-reasoned brief supporting his application for rehearing, charges this court with ignoring the principle set forth in Givens v. Kendrick, 15 Ala. 648. For the following reasons, we do not agree.
Givens, supra, stands for the proposition that if one intends to cut certain trees without their owner’s consent, but mistakenly cuts trees owned by another, he is then liable for the penalty imposed by Tit. 47, § 272, Code of Ala. 1940, to the owner of the trees he in fact cut. Learned counsel contends that it was defendant-appellants’ task to prove that they had permission to cut the trees which they intended to cut. He further contends that their failure to do so renders Givens, supra, applicable here.
Such is not the case. Lack of consent to cut the trees which appellants intended to cut is an element of plaintiff-appellees’ cause of action for the statutory penalty. Specifically, the statute requires that for a claimant to recover the statutory penalty the cutting must be done knowingly, willfully, and without the consent of the owner. "To recover in this instance, under the Givens rationale, the requirements of the statute, to wit, lack of consent, must be proved by the party asserting the claim. The record does not reveal that such was proved. Givens accordingly does not apply in this instance.
Able counsel requests this court to order an affirmance conditioned upon a remittitur of damages over $2,500, inasmuch as ample evidence exists to support the jury’s finding that the fair market value of the timber cut was $2,500 as prayed for in appellees’ complaint. While we are not unsympathetic to counsel’s request, which is based upon considerations of judicial economy and expense to the parties involved, we cannot issue such an order. As our original opinion points out, the evidence was conflicting as to the number of trees actually cut and their fair market value. It therefore cannot be ascertained how to apportion the $5,000 general verdict between compensatory damages and statutory penalty. Accordingly, the remittitur requested by counsel is too speculative to be granted.
Opinion extended. Application for rehearing overruled.
WRIGHT, P. J., and BRADLEY, J., concur.