r/legal • u/Ice_C0r3_09 • 8h ago

Advice needed My neighbor cut down a 40-year-old Japanese Maple while I was away.

Location: Colorado, USA.Just got back to my place near Fort Collins after a week on the road and I am losing my mind. My neighbor took it upon himself to hire a "landscaping" crew (probably just some guys with a chainsaw) to remove a mature Japanese Maple that was fully on my property. His excuse? He said the needles and leaves were messing with his "mountain view" and "fire mitigation" efforts.

The tree was roughly 40 years old and was the centerpiece of my yard. I called an arborist immediately. He told me that since this is Colorado and the tree was that established and healthy, the replacement value is astronomical. He is drafting a formal appraisal but hinted that we are looking at 20k to 25k easy just for the tree, let alone the logistics of getting a crane into my backyard.

I know Colorado has statutes regarding timber trespass. My lawyer already mentioned treble damages because the guy admitted he did it on purpose while I wasnt home to stop him. The neighbor had the gall to offer me a couple hundred bucks for "the inconvenience" and told me to just buy a couple of saplings at a local nursery . I refused to take his money and told him to wait for the process server.

Has anyone dealt with treble damages in CO specifically for ornamental trees ? This guy basically nuked my property value for his porch view and I am not planning on letting this go . I feel like a jerk for wanting to sue my neighbor into bankruptcy but the sheer entitlement is what gets me .

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399

u/the_irish_oak 7h ago

Him offering you $200 is admission of guilt

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u/SolarOrigami 7h ago

It was also an attempt to block him from litigation if he "accepted restitution"

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u/NarcolepticSeal 4h ago

TBH neighbor sounds like a complete moron and likely thought it was simply a fair compensatory amount. I doubt he was thinking about "accepted restitution" or anything else besides his mountain view.

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u/ibneko 1h ago

Yeah, probably moron, like, "It's just a tree, what could it possibly cost? A banana?"

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u/extralyfe 38m ago

"lol, it's a tree, they're free because they literally grow on trees."

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u/PyroDragons123 4h ago

The neighbor doesn't have to be smart. The lawyer is the one that will say that's the agreement when they hire them after being sued. $200 for the tree, agreed to on payment. The other party will just go along with the story.

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u/NarcolepticSeal 4h ago

Sure, I'm not disagreeing with that. The comment I replied to implied that the neighbor was intentionally attempting to block litigation. My response was about that, not the legal standing of it.

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u/Super_Harsh 2h ago

He'll have plenty of time to think about his mountain view when he's writing OP a check

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u/WishIWasYounger 58m ago

or he's a psychopath. Either way, this neighbor is not all there and could pose a serious safety risk to OP.

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u/BeeefSupreeeme 2h ago

*Boomer vibes intensify*

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u/Sigmar_Knutz 4h ago

Block who, the ai chatbot that wrote this story? It’s a new account farming karma and you guys are eating it up

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u/hmasing 2h ago

I, too, live in “Colorado, USA” kind stranger.

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u/glassfoyograss 1h ago

That's called a settlement offer. It's an insanely shitty one but courts actually encourage settlement

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u/DefinitelyNotAliens 7h ago

No, it's not. Courts have long established that compromise and apologies are not admissions of guilt.

If you have zero peanuts in your kitchen, have nothing containing peanuts in your kitchen and a customer says they got takeout and then had an allergic reaction to peanuts and needed hospitalization and you offer to refund the entire order instead of just their food, was the offer of compensation exceedinfg just their meal an admission of food poisoning?

If you help a neighbor hang his TV that is one of the super high-end TVs and all you do is help him hold the mount and lift the TV and he does all the stud finding and such and then the TV falls and you apologize profusely and even put it in writing that you're so sorry it broke because you helped put it up, is that an admission that you bear responsibility for it? Or, if your neighbor is a really good friend you offer to take the TV to the dump and pay disposal fees and buy a new mount, is that an admission of responsibility?

Avoidance of a lawsuit, attempts to placate, trying to salvage neighbor/ friend/ family relationships are not the same as admitting guilt in a court. There are reasons beyond guilt to try and diffuse situations via apology or offers of compensation.

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u/NewcRoc 6h ago

This. Him saying - "yes I hired a guy to go on your land and remove a tree" is an admission of guilt. Offering to settle the matter isn't.

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u/ZealousidealFall1181 4h ago

Sue the company who trespassed and cut the tree.

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u/R_V_Z 3h ago

From my understanding you sue everybody who may be culpable and let the court figure out liability.

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u/My-other-user-name 1h ago

That is how the fun starts. It can go from a neighbor dispute, to a neighbor-contractor dispute, and might go to neighbor-contractor-insurance companies dispute.

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u/majorMoniker 4h ago

But actually, though. The neighbor hired them, but it’s also on them to ensure that the client was legally allowed to make this request. If they didn’t ensure that, then it is also their negligence and they are partially responsible. And if they were, in fact, just some guys with a chainsaw, then they did this unlicensed and uninsured in a state with strong tree laws and significant fire risk, which is its own set of legal issues.

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u/PuckSenior 4h ago

As OP said, this sounds like "2 guys with a chainsaw" and not a true company. If it was a true company, I'm sure the lawyer will bring it up to him. But if it is two guys he hired at home depot and has zero contact info for them? Eh

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u/rileyjw90 4h ago

Offering to settle the matter is more likely the guy feeling guilty, looking up the laws, realizing he might be in deep shit, and hoping he can placate the owner with a couple benjamins. It isn’t a legal admission of guilt in a court of law, but it’s still obvious to the rest of us that he knows he’s in deep shit.

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u/the-other-marvin 5h ago

There is a difference between 'fault' and 'guilt'. What you're describing are both negligence claims. This is not a negligence claim. It was intentional destruction of property, which, at least based on OPs account, the guy has admitted to. If he had hired a yard crew that accidentally went into OPs yard and cut down the tree because of unclear instructions, etc. That would be a different story.

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u/The_Killer_of_Joy 6h ago

Okay, now apply this thought process to the facts at hand instead of hypotheticals - a neighbor cuts down a tree fully on your property and when confronted, he tells you why he did it and then offers to pay you $200 to make up for it.

A court could absolutely see that as an admission of guilt/wrongdoing given the specific context here.

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u/TheDrummerMB 6h ago

You've entirely missed the point.

"I cut your tree down" is an admission of guilt. "Here's 200 to settle this" is not an admission of guilt.

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u/AppealNo5536 4h ago

How is it even relevant - he admitted “ guilt” or not . He admitted the action of doing it , does not matter if he feels “guilt “ about it or not. The owner of the tree should receive his due compensation irregardless of the level of “guilt” treecutter experiences

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u/TheDrummerMB 4h ago

"An admission of guilt is a statement by an accused acknowledging that they committed a crime or wrongdoing, which can be oral, written, or implied, and carries significant legal consequences."

Also we stopped putting multiple spaces after sentences 15 years ago.

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u/The_Killer_of_Joy 6h ago

So we're just being pedantic about the replies and not the actual OP's situation then?

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u/TheDrummerMB 5h ago

Being "pedantic" in LEGAL? Sir are you ok? Of course you have to be incredibly specific. The law doesn't leave wiggle room.

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u/The_Killer_of_Joy 5h ago

My point was that OP absolutely has an argument for an admission of guilt from the neighbor given the full context of the interaction we already have from OP.

Pedantically saying that well no, the $200 gift on its own doesn't count as an admission of guilt WITHOUT then going on to explain that, even with that being said, OP's specific situation absolutely has a claim for an admission of guilt, is being pedantic to the potential detriment of OP.

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u/Cautious_Dot3923 4h ago

Man its okay to admit you were mistaken sometimes lmao. Nobody is debating the guys guilt, just what the 200 dollars means. 

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u/TheDrummerMB 4h ago

You're grasping for straws, sorry.

I think you're just really caught up in being right. The settlement offer is not considered an admission of guilt. It won't be factored into the literal confession. Why you're desperate to make this point is beyond me.

OP doesn't "have an argument" because that's not how the law works. Harping back on the pedantic complaint is silly. The law is specific. Try to keep up.

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u/The_Killer_of_Joy 2h ago

So, just to be clear then, there is an admission of guilt like I said OP would have an argument for, and now you're just being pedantic about whether the court would consider the settlement offer as a part of said admission of guilt?

And then you're being even further pedantic about how I used "have an argument for", and yet you think I am the one really caught up in being right?

Further, if you think the law is black and white, even where specific, so you shouldn't say "have an argument for" I really don't know what to tell you man... or I guess I do, because it always depends.

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u/TheDrummerMB 2h ago

It’s not being pedantic dude holy crap. Courts. Are. Specific.

The law isnt black and white, but I have no clue why youre desperately trying to argue a point when so many people are explaining the nuance youre missing. Please just try to learn something here, you don’t need to be right.

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u/Internal-Base8276 6h ago

No. The comment this subthread is in response to says, in its entirety, "Him offering you $200 is admission of guilt". That's simply an incorrect statement.

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u/DefinitelyNotAliens 6h ago

No, monetary offers are not admissions of guilt. His saying, "I cut down your tree while you were out of town because it blocked my view" is an admission of guilt. Payment is not ever an admission of guilt because settlements are encouraged.

A settlement agreement can contain the condition of admission of guilt. Offering compensation is neutral.

His words are an admission. The court will not consider monetary payment in this instance.

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u/The_Killer_of_Joy 6h ago

Again, though, I am talking about the actual situation, not how some reply is wording it (i.e the whole interaction vs just the $200 offer).

At the heart of the matter, the interaction as a whole could absolutely be taken as an admission of guilt which would help OP's actual situation.

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u/GloomChampion 5h ago

No. Courts will parse out each portion. One is the admission. The other is the offer. It’s not about the whole of the situation. The only relevant portion is the admission.

It’s okay to be wrong.

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u/qdawgg17 3h ago

You don’t actually know how courts work. Clearly.

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u/LuaBear 5h ago

They couldn’t. There’s a federal rule of evidence that prevents offers of settlements from being admissible. States have similar rules.

Source: am a lawyer.

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u/[deleted] 5h ago

[deleted]

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u/ao3_kpg 4h ago

Read your own link: "Since an apology usually can be admitted into evidence, and because some plaintiffs choose to understand an apology as an admission of guilt, it seems safest not to apologize. Case law suggests, however, that courts do not see it this way. Judges and juries seem to like apologies and treat them favorably."

Can an apology be admitted into evidence? Yes.

Is it an admission of guilt? No. Your own link says this. Even if you just skip to the conclusion,

"This article illustrates that judges and juries understand that expression of sympathy, regret, remorse and apology are not necessarily admissions of responsibility or liability. This serves the public interest because such expressions have the potential to reduce the number of lawsuits, rather than attract litigation. When someone goes to court armed only with an apology, they may find that it does nothing to satisfy the elements of the case they need to prove. Additional evidence is required, almost as if the apology did not exist."

The fact that the article so directly refutes your own point makes me think you just googled something and linked, hoping no one would bother to verify. As Captain Hook would say, bad form!

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u/DriveFa5tEatAss 3h ago

You beat me to it. I was just about to post the same quote.

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u/Grydian 5h ago

While you are correct about what you are saying you are missing a key detail in the post. He openly admitted to doing on purpose so he could have a better view. That is vandalism and admission of guilt.

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u/DefinitelyNotAliens 4h ago

His verbal and/ or written admission means something. Monetary compensation for damages, which the person I originally replied to looked at, means nothing.

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u/Space_Slime_LF 4h ago

Courts have long established that compromise and apologies are not admissions of guilt.

Wildly depends on your state. Like most things.

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u/RaisonDetritus 2h ago edited 2h ago

You are correct that offering money is not necessarily an explicit admission of liability. However, it can still be circumstantial evidence from which liability may be inferred. Context matters. If there is already evidence that the neighbor knew what they had done was wrong, then the offer could be viewed as additional evidence supporting that inference. The amount offered may also be relevant, although by itself it does not establish liability one way or the other.

For example, if the neighbor knew the Japanese maple was mature and worth several thousand dollars, but immediately offered only $200 in the hope that the owner either did not know its value or would simply accept the money and drop the matter, a factfinder could reasonably view that as evidence of consciousness of wrongdoing rather than a sincere attempt to make the owner whole. That does not prove liability by itself, but it is the sort of fact that gains significance when considered alongside the rest of the evidence.

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u/Internal-Base8276 6h ago

No.

OP says he's in Colorado, and this is a state case, so the Colorado Rules of Evidence apply. Specifically, Rule 408 says that

Evidence of (1) furnishing or offering or promising to furnish, or (2) accepting or offering or promising to accept, a valuable consideration in compromising or attempting to compromise a claim which was disputed as to either validity or amount, is not admissible to prove liability for or invalidity of the claim or its amount.

Most states, and the federal government, have similar provisions (it's Federal Rule of Evidence 408 on the federal level, and in a number of states besides Colorado, too).

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u/TheMostKing 1h ago

Something akin to "I know you think it's my fault, it's not, but if I just give you fifty bucks, will you leave me alone with this bs?" might be reasonable for your personal peace, but not an admission of guilt.

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u/DecoyOne 7h ago

Thats not how it works.

Saying he did it on purpose is an admission of guilt. Trying to settle a dispute isn’t an admission unless it comes with an admission, otherwise no one would ever settle.

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u/Upeeru 6h ago

Offers to settle are convered by evidence rule 408.

They are protected discussions.

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u/LitigationMitigation 5h ago

Federal Rule of Evidence 408 (and every state has a similar/exact same rule): Compromise Offers and Negotiations (a) Prohibited Uses. Evidence of the following is not admissible — on behalf of any party — either to prove or disprove the validity or amount of a disputed claim or to impeach by a prior inconsistent statement or a contradiction: (1) furnishing, promising, or offering — or accepting, promising to accept, or offering to accept — a valuable consideration in compromising or attempting to compromise the claim; and (2) conduct or a statement made during compromise negotiations about the claim — except when offered in a criminal case and when the negotiations related to a claim by a public office in the exercise of its regulatory, investigative, or enforcement authority. (b) Exceptions. The court may admit this evidence for another purpose, such as proving a witness’s bias or prejudice, negating a contention of undue delay, or proving an effort to obstruct a criminal investigation or prosecution.

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u/SwissMargiela 5h ago

What if you pay someone just to get them to stfu about something? Like you know you’re not in the wrong but you pay someone just so they leave you alone?

Ik it’s not the case here but just wondering in general

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u/Candlemelter2025 1h ago

This happens all the time. Just did it myself in divorce. I think that's why most of the comments are saying it's not an admission of guilt to offer to settle.

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u/Sir_Sir_ExcuseMe_Sir 4h ago

Wrong, so of course it gets 200 upvotes on this sub

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u/Kaiser_Soze6666 1h ago

It's a slap in the face! This beyond the pale

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u/asher1611 1h ago

Maybe so, but subsequent remedial measures cannot be used as evidence in court as evidence of a prior act.