234 TREES AS GOOD CITIZENS 



1676. This action was based on the premise that "The 

 Town, seeing some trees spoiled in the streets by barking 

 or otherwise * * * hath agreed that no green tree within 

 the Town, as marked with N, shall be barked or felled, or 

 any otherwise killed, under the penalty of 10 shillings 

 (for each tree) so killed." 



Judicial recognition of this method of computing dam- 

 ages has been given in various suits at law. In Olean, 

 New York, judgment of $150 against a gas company was 

 awarded for four trees destroyed by escaping gas in soil, 

 and this judgment was affirmed by the Court of Appeals. 

 In Kansas City, judgment of $200 was obtained against a 

 telephone company, because the linemen, without consult- 

 ing the owner, had chopped out the top and center of a tree, 

 causing its death. This decision is of especial interest, for 

 the reason that the verdict involved a single tree only, and 

 that tree a Poplar with a girth of but six inches. One won- 

 ders what the verdict would have been in the case of a mag- 

 ificent Elm or some other really desirable tree. In New 

 York State a verdict of $500 apiece for the destruction of a 

 row of trees was awarded against an offending construction 

 company. In the case of Bathgate vs. North Jersey Street 

 Railway Company, (70 Atlantic Reporter, 132 etc.) it was 

 shown that four of Bathgate's trees had been injured and 

 eventually killed by electric current from the company's 

 wires. Damages were awarded in the sum of $500, and 

 the decision of the lower court was upheld by the Court of 

 Errors and Appeals. 



(2) Replacement Value. In the application of this 

 method computation is based on the cost of removing a 

 damaged tree and its subsoil, if the latter has become 

 vitiated, and replacing them with a good tree and good 

 soil. This plan contemplates that the new tree shall be, 

 as nearly as practicable, of the same size as the tree which 



