Premises LiabilityWrongful Tree Removal

In 2011, Bowie tree removal lawyer George Patterson obtained an arbitration award of over $106,000 against a developer based out of Crofton, Maryland. The developer went onto George Patterson’s client’s Bowie property and cleared his wooded lot without written permission to remove the trees. After filing suit, George Patterson found that the developer prepared a site plan with inaccurate topographical studies. This failure placed the developer in a position where they would have to relay an expensive sewer line or regrade a lot owned by George Patterson’s client. The evidence indicated that the developer decided to go onto the Bowie property, it did not own, to regrade that property to prevent water from pooling on the developed land.

Lawyer, George Patterson hired an arborist to offer an opinion as to the cost of planting grown trees to replace the trees that were removed. The retired Prince George’s County judge who heard the case ruled that the developer should pay three times the cost to restore the property, plus legal fees and costs. An award of three times the cost of restoring the property was the maximum amount that the judge could award under Maryland law. The developer argued that the lot that had been purchased for $115,000 a couple of years before the removal of the trees was worth more since it had been regraded and the trees had been removed.