Public record · updated as cases resolve

Recent tree law verdicts and settlements.

What courts, juries, and insurers are actually paying when someone cuts, poisons, or clears trees they don't own. Every entry links to its public source. Amounts are as reported; these are not TreeLawLeads cases.

$7.9Mreported across 16 resolved matters

$2.5Mlargest single resolution listed

11states represented

2–3×statutory multiplier in most states

$600K claimed

SETTLEMENT

Actor William H. Macy settles $600,000 suit over neighbor's destroyed pine trees

Los Angeles County, CA · Feb 11, 2025 · Several decades-old mature pines and other vegetation

Neighbor Pierce Brown alleged Macy knowingly directed landscapers to destroy and remove mature pines and vegetation on Brown's side of the line, and sued for $600,000 in Los Angeles Superior Court. The case was dismissed in February 2025 after a settlement whose terms are confidential. Counted here at the claimed amount; the actual payment was not disclosed.

Defendant: Neighboring homeowner (via landscapers)
Law: Trespass; Cal. Civ. Code § 3346 exposure
As reported by: People / AOL ↗

confidential termslandscaper acting for owner

$1.7M+

SETTLEMENT

Missouri couple pays $1.7M+ after poisoning a neighbor's oaks for a harbor view

Camden, Knox County, ME · Jun 19, 2024 · Mature waterfront oaks, killed with tebuthiuron herbicide

The seasonal neighbors applied tebuthiuron near oaks on the late L.L. Bean president's widow's shoreline lot; the chemical also leached into a public park and beach. As reported, the total exceeded $1.7 million: more than $1.5 million to the property owner in a May 2023 settlement, a $180,000 consent agreement with the town plus $30,000 for environmental testing, and a $4,500 state pesticide fine, with ongoing remediation exposure. Shows that willful destruction of a handful of trees can price like a commercial claim once soil remediation enters.

Defendant: Neighboring homeowners
Law: Private settlement; Maine pesticide-control violation; town consent agreement
As reported by: NPR / WGME ↗

herbicideview clearingmulti-party penalties

$125,000

SETTLEMENT

Seattle homeowner and landscaper pay $125,000 for cutting park trees to improve a view

Mt. Baker neighborhood, Seattle, King County, WA · Jun 29, 2023 · Multiple trees on a steep slope in Mt. Claire Park (environmentally critical area)

The city sued a homeowner and the landscaping company he hired after trees and recent restoration plantings in a public park below his house were cut back to open the view. Both settled for $125,000. Seattle has used the same playbook repeatedly ($440,000 in 2017 and $360,000 in 2018 for the West Seattle greenbelt), and it names the contractor every time; the crew's insurer is usually the deeper pocket.

Defendant: Homeowner + landscaping contractor
Law: Timber trespass; Seattle tree-protection and critical-areas codes
As reported by: MyNorthwest ↗

public landview clearingcontractor named

$100,000

SETTLEMENT

$100,000 pre-suit settlement for a single large oak cut by a corporate trespasser

DeKalb County, GA · Jun 1, 2024 · One large oak

One oak, one arborist report, one demand: counsel negotiated a $100,000 recovery from the corporate defendants' insurance carriers before filing suit, leaning on Georgia's statute, which allows three times the standing value of the tree plus attorney's fees and reforestation costs, with punitive exposure on top. A benchmark for what the smallest bracket can be worth when the statute and the appraisal are both in hand.

Defendant: Corporate defendants (via insurers)
Law: O.C.G.A. § 51-12-50 (treble value, fees, reforestation)
As reported by: Andersen, Tate & Carr ↗

single treepre-suitinsurer paid

$2.5M

SETTLEMENT

$2.5 million settlement for 136 trees cleared to open a Menemsha harbor view

Chilmark, Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, MA · Sep 15, 2023 · 136 beech, oak and locust, some 100 ft tall

An associate staying at the defendants' inn cleared a wide strip of the abutting owner's woodland in 2019 to improve views of Menemsha harbor and pond. The owner's restoration estimate was $3.6 million. Weeks before a June jury trial, the parties settled for $2.5 million: $1 million from the cutter's insurer and $1.5 million from the inn owners' company. Massachusetts' tree-cutting statute allows treble damages for willful cutting, which framed the exposure.

Defendant: Inn owners' company + the associate who cut
Law: Trespass; M.G.L. c. 242 § 7 exposure (treble)
As reported by: Vineyard Gazette ↗

view clearinginsurer + owner paidrestoration estimate $3.6M

$440,000

SETTLEMENT

West Seattle greenbelt: two couples pay $440,000 for 66 trees cut on a public slope

West Seattle, King County, WA · Apr 19, 2017 · 66 trees (about 150 across both suits)

Roughly 150 trees were cut on a steep city-owned greenbelt below a row of homes to open views. The first two households settled for $440,000; a second suit against the remaining defendants resolved the following year for $360,000. The city pleaded the timber-trespass statute alongside code violations, and the settlement funded slope remediation. The public-land version of the view-clearing case, priced at roughly $6,700 per tree before any multiplier.

Defendant: Two neighboring couples who hired the cutting
Law: RCW 64.12.030 timber trespass; trespass; negligence; critical-areas and parks code
As reported by: City of Seattle ↗

public landview clearingtreble damages pleaded

Disclaimer. TreeLawLeads was not involved in any matter listed and has no affiliation with the parties, counsel, or publications cited. Compiled from news reports, court opinions, and counsel announcements; figures are as reported by the linked source and may include settlements whose full terms are confidential, penalties assessed by governments, and claims still pending. None of these are TreeLawLeads matters. Not legal advice, and not a prediction of what any other case is worth; verify the controlling statute and current status before relying on any entry. Know of a resolution we're missing? Send us the source.

What these numbers have in common

Every large result above rests on the same three things we screen for before a case reaches a firm: a survey or record that fixes ownership, an arborist's per-tree valuation, and a statute that multiplies it. The defendants who pay most are contractors, developers, and neighbors acting through a crew — insured, and on the wrong side of a line they were told about.

Per-tree appraisal drives it

$90,000 per mature tree in Maryland; $95,000 for one coast live oak in Oakland. Multiply by the count.

Willfulness unlocks the multiplier

Warnings ignored, lines flagged, notes left in mailboxes — that record is what turns 1× into 3×.

Insurers write the checks

Tree services, landscapers, and developers carry liability coverage. Most of the settlements above were paid by a carrier.

Cases with this fact pattern are on the shelf now.

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