CHAPTER IX 

 THE APPRAISAL OF DAMAGES 



133. Principles Underlying Appraisal of Damages. In ap- 

 praisals to determine damages, the principles underlying the 

 valuation of forest property reach their fullest development 

 and receive their most complete application. When the eco- 

 nomic basis of forest valuation is understood (Chapter IV) it 

 will be seen that the guiding principles of legal practice indicate 

 a consistent effort to apply this basis in determining compen- 

 sation for damages. 



The uncertainty and difficulty of authoritative determination 

 of future values is here, as elsewhere, the most serious drawback 

 to the unqualified adoption of expectation values as the basis 

 for measuring losses or damages. Whatever substitute methods 

 are adopted, as, for instance, the determination of cost, are dic- 

 tated by the greater relative certainty of the figures thus ob- 

 tained, which consideration may outweigh in importance the 

 fact that these figures do not accurately represent actual value 

 or loss. 



These legal principles may be summarized as follows: 



a. Damages are payable in money. Compensation, not 

 physical restoration, is required. 



b. The difference in value of the property before and after 

 the damage is the measure of damages. The value of the por- 

 tion destroyed is not in itself the measure of damages, but is 

 a means of ascertaining this difference in total value. Soil and 

 timber are real estate. The value of this real estate as a whole, 

 before and after the injury, is the measure of damages. 



c. Damages must be appraised on the basis of the most prof- 

 itable use to which a property is adapted, as indicated by the 

 use of similar contiguous property. Sale value may or may not 

 be a correct index of real value. 



