§ 18-60-102 — Injuring, destroying, or carrying away property of another

(a) A person trespassing as follows shall pay a person injured treble the value of a thing damaged, broken, destroyed, or carried away, with costs, if the person shall: (1) Cut down, injure, destroy, or carry away any tree placed or growing for use or shade or any timber, rails, or wood, standing, being, or growing on the land of another person; (2) Dig up, quarry, or carry away any stone, ground, clay, turf, mold, fruit, or plants; or (3) Cut down or carry away, any grass, grain, corn, cotton, tobacco, hemp, or flax, in which he or she has no interest or right, standing or being on any land not his or her own, or shall wilfully break the glass, or any part of it, in any building not his or her own. (b) If any person trespasses upon land in violation of the provisions of this section and if the land is owned by several joint tenants, tenants in common, coparceners, or other co-owners, then any co-owner who has not given consent to the trespass shall be entitled to treble the value of the thing so damaged, broken, destroyed, or carried away, with costs, the treble damages to be computed according to the amount of the undivided interest of the co-owner. (c) If on the trial of any action brought under the provisions of this section it shall appear that the defendant had probable cause to believe that the land on which the trespass is alleged to have been committed, or that the thing so taken, carried away, injured, or destroyed, was his or her own, the plaintiff in the action shall recover single damages only, with costs.

Legislative History

Rev. Stat., ch. 153, § 4; C. & M. Dig., § 10322; Acts 1937, No. 29, § 1; Pope's Dig., § 1299; Acts 1957, No. 88, § 1; A.S.A. 1947, §§ 50-105, 50-107.