A judge ordered a California couple to pay almost $600,000 for uprooting a 180-year-old oak tree and causing other damages to a protected property.
It was in 2014 when the damage was discovered after a neighbor reported the digging on a property protected under a conservation easement.
Bob Neale, director of Sonoma Land Trust, visited the area and discovered over 3,000 cubic yards of rock and dirt had been removed. A 180-year-old oak tree had been uprooted without permits, the Press Democrat said.
The oak was uprooted and bound so that it could be moved to an adjoining ranch where property owners Toni and Peter Thompson had built estate home.
The 180-year-old tree and two others the Thompsons took to their property all died, along with more than ten trees and other vegetation, court records stated.
Because of the damages, Sonoma Land Trust sued the couple.
Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Patrick Broderick agreed with the land trust and called out the couple for “knowing and intentional” violations of a legally binding conservation deal.
He added that the Thompsons had “demonstrated an arrogance and complete disregard for the mandatory terms of the easement.”
The judge ordered them to pay over $586,000 in damages and other costs.
After Broderick’s ruling, the couple put the protected property and a neighboring ranch up on the market for more than $8m.
They are filing for a new trial on claims that their attorney couldn’t provide proper representation amid private family problems that occurred before the court proceeding, said their new attorney Richard Freeman.
“There are so many personal tragic issues throughout this case that were very painful to deal with and actually really affected the ability to tell our side of the story,” Peter Thompson expressed.
“In our opinion, there’s a lot of evidence that our side of the story really didn’t get a chance to explain.”
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