Lee v. Gidley

SIMPSON, Justice.

The plaintiff recovered of the defendant $500 damages on Count 3 of the complaint charging trespass to land and cutting timber. Counts 1 and 2 were in debt to recover the statutory penalty for cutting the timber (Code 1940, Title 47, § 272) but the jury made no return on these counts, so we consider only Count 3.

The proper measure of damages for a recovery under Count 3 (for trespass quare clausum fregit) is the difference in the value of the land immediately before and after the trespass. Granade v. United States Lumber & Cotton Co., 224 Ala. 185 (9), 139 So. 409; White v.…