CHAPTER 251

An Act to amend and reenact §§ 8-906, 8-908 and 8-909, as severally
amended, of the Code of Virginia, relating to damages for encroach-
ment in timber cutting.

[H 528]

Approved April 1, 1968

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 8-906, 8-908 and 8-909, as severally amended, of the Code
of Virginia be amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 8-906. If any person, firm or corporation, in the course of cutting
timber on any timber lands in the State, encroach and cut timber on any
adjoining timber land, except under bona fide claim of right, the owner
thereof shall, in addition to all other remedies afforded by law, have the
benefit of a right to, and a summary remedy for recovery of, damages *
in an amount * as hereinafter specified and recovered as hereinafter
provided.

§ 8-908. What payment to be made; expenses included.— * Double
the amount of the damages thus determined, together with necessary
expenses incurred in making the estimate, including a per diem allowance
at the rate of twenty dollars a day for an eight hour day to the estimators,
shall be paid by the trespasser within thirty days after a statement of
the estimate shall have been rendered.
§ 8-909. When person damaged may proceed in court.—If such
amount be not paid within thirty days after rendition of statement, the
person upon whose land the trespass occurred may proceed for judgment
in the amount of payment as specified in § 8-908 plus an amount equal
to the actual damages as determined by § 8-907, in any court of the
county having jurisdiction in civil matters.

If, upon receiving notice of the alleged trespass and of the appoint-
ment of an estimator, the person so receiving notice does not admit the
fact of trespass, he may decline to appoint an estimator and notify the
other party to such effect, together with his reason for refusing to
appoint an estimator, and in such case the aggrieved party may proceed
in the appropriate court of the county and, upon proving the fact of
trespass and the amount of damages, may recover * triple the amount
of damages and costs from the trespasser.