60 Wash. 559 | Wash. | 1910
This action was instituted by the plaintiff against the Humptulips Driving Company, a corporation, and A. P. Stockwell, its president and general manager, to recover damages for changing the course or channel of the Humptulips river upon and across certain lands owned by the plaintiff, and for cutting and removing timber therefrom. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff in the sum of $152.70 for cutting and removing the timber, and in the further sum of $600 for changing the course or channel of the stream. From a judgment entered on this verdict, the plaintiff has appealed.
The principal errors assigned arise out of the refusal of the court to award treble damages for the trespass, or to give judgment against the respondent Stockwell. Rem. & Bal. Code, § 939, provides that,
“Whenever any person shall cut down, girdle, or otherwise injure or carry off any tree, timber, or shrub on the land of another person, . . •. without lawful authority, in an action by such person, . . . against the person committing such trespasses, or any of them, if judgment be given for the plaintiff, it shall be given for treble the amount of damages claimed or assessed therefor, as the case may be.”
The following section provides that,
“If upon the trial of such action it shall appear that the trespass was casual or involuntary, or that the defendant had probable cause to believe that the land on which such trespass was committed was his own, or that of the person in whose service or by whose direction the act was done, . judgment shall only be given for single damages.”
On the other hand, the testimony clearly shows that the trespass was committed by direction of the respondent Stock-well, who is the president and general manager of his corespondent. Under this state of facts, the court instructed the jury that Stockwell was not individually hable, if he
The judgment must therefore be affirmed as to the respondent corporation and reversed as to the respondent Stockwell, with directions to award a new trial as to the? latter. It is so ordered.
Fullerton, Gose, Parker, and Mount, JJ., concur.