## Facts

- Farm sellers contracted in 1983 to sell a Floyd County, Iowa farm to the buyers, with possession to transfer March 1, 1984.
- Before the possession date, the sellers cut and removed about 100 walnut trees from two locations on the farm; the contract did not reserve timber rights to the sellers.
- The buyers conceded the trees were timber/forest trees and were not ornamental and not part of a windbreak.
- The trees were about 20 years old, and the buyers’ expert opined they would not reach reasonable marketing potential for another 20 years.
- The buyers sought damages based on projected future mature value discounted to present value.
- The trial court rejected the future-value approach and awarded damages based on the trees’ current market value as lumber.
- The buyers appealed, challenging only the measure of damages (liability was not disputed).

## Issues

1. What is the proper measure of damages for wrongful destruction of walnut trees characterized as timber/forest (not ornamental or windbreak), when the trees were allegedly cut before reaching peak marketability?

## Decision

- Affirmed.
- The proper measure of damages was the trees’ current market value as timber/lumber at the time of destruction, not the discounted present value of projected future mature value.
- The court declined to recognize a new future-value measure for immature timber.

## Legal Principles

- No single universal damages measure applies to all tree losses; the measure depends on the trees’ use and setting.
- For timber or forest trees, the ordinary measure is the market value of the timber at the time of destruction (or, in appropriate cases, diminution in the value of the realty).
- Alternative measures may apply where trees have special value or function (e.g., ornamental or windbreak), but those measures are unavailable when the trees are conceded to be ordinary timber.
- Damages measures that depend on speculative assumptions about future growth and future timber markets are generally disfavored when established market-based measures apply.

## Conclusion

Because the walnut trees were treated as ordinary timber without ornamental or windbreak function, the court limited recovery to their present market value as timber at the time they were cut and refused to award damages based on projected, discounted future mature value.


Laube v. Estate of Thomas, 376 N.W.2d 108 (Iowa 1985)