## Facts

- Grays Harbor County owned timberland from which merchantable timber was cut and removed without authorization.
- Adjacent land was owned by W.C. Abel, who sold the loggers cutting rights on his tract for $4,000 and represented that the only merchantable timber in the area was on his land in four distinct patches.
- The loggers attempted to obtain a professional survey but, facing delays, undertook their own boundary effort using maps, a compass, and a rope from a point they believed to be a marker.
- Acting under a good-faith belief they were within Abel’s boundaries, the loggers cut and removed timber that was actually on county land.
- The loggers sold and delivered the logs to Bay City Lumber Company, which purchased them without actual knowledge of the trespass.
- The trial court found stumpage value at the original taking was $8 per thousand board feet and the value at Bay City’s receipt (after cutting and hauling) was $35 per thousand board feet.
- The county sued Bay City for conversion rather than suing the loggers; Bay City brought the loggers in on cross-claims.

## Issues

1. Whether the owner of timber wrongfully cut and sold may recover from an innocent purchaser the timber’s enhanced value at the time and place of the purchaser’s conversion, rather than only stumpage value.
2. How good-faith mistaken logging affects the measure of damages and liability for conversion in the chain of possession.
3. Whether, and to what extent, an innocent purchaser held liable to the owner may obtain relief over against the original loggers.

## Decision

- The Washington Supreme Court affirmed judgment for the county against Bay City.
- The court held the county could recover the value of the logs at the time and place Bay City converted them, including value added by cutting and transportation.
- Bay City’s lack of knowledge did not bar conversion liability or limit damages owed to the county.
- Bay City could pursue appropriate relief over against the loggers on the cross-claims.

## Legal Principles

- A purchaser who takes possession of property derived from a wrongful severance and exercises dominion over it commits conversion against the true owner, even if the purchaser acted in good faith.
- The true owner may elect to sue a converter later in the chain and recover the property’s value at the time and place of that converter’s conversion, including inseparable enhancements.
- Good-faith mistake by the original cutters may bear on their culpability and allocation of ultimate loss among wrongdoers, but it does not defeat the owner’s right to full compensation from the sued converter.
- A converter held liable to the owner may seek indemnity or similar relief from the party whose acts initiated the wrongful taking and transfer.

## Conclusion

The court allowed the timber owner to recover from an innocent purchaser the enhanced value of wrongfully cut logs at the purchaser’s conversion, leaving the purchaser to seek reimbursement from the loggers who committed the original trespass.


Grays Harbor County v. Bay City Lumber Co., 289 P.2d 975 (Wash. 1955)