"Crane’s Contract Cutting in turn contracted with Paul Gaddis, a licensed forester who lives in East Machias, to identify Robertson’s property lines.
On Nov. 15, 2008, Gaddis employed a series of substandard procedures in identifying the boundaries of the Robertson property, and mistakenly marked a portion of Woodworth’s land as part of the Robertson property.":
Sad fact is this won't change a thing. The foresters and cruisers know where the lines are according to themselves. A few feet this way or that, it's just wood. We surveyors are just too greedy and cut into their profits.
Get in, cut it, get out. I am willing to bet there are many more timber owners that get trespassed on, but don't see it because its in the back of the land.
Cee - do you know if Gaddis was reported to the Maine Land Surveying Board and if they were involved in pursuing the charges?
We are dealing with a similar case right now that I discovered because our Foresters have the Surveyors run the State Forest boundaries prior to harvest (imagine that). The adjoiner's Forester is being investigated by the State Board of Forestry (which is part of the Department I work for, we also manage 8 State Forests).
This is NOT the hypothetical case I posted yesterday.
The Forest Practice Forester which I talked to about the case told us their standard is within 5 to 10' of a straight line which the "wrong" line isn't even straight, not anywhere near that close.
"Gaddis was negligent for failing to exercise proper care in identifying the boundaries of the Robertson property" it would seem to me that all the blame would fall on Gaddis? The cutter relied on Gaddis and I am sure the cutter thought they were doing right, obviously Gaddis was wrong BUT if Gaddis had assured the owner and the cutter they could mark the line and was in the business of marking cut lines why would they think differnt and be on the hook for it? I think there must be missing information here? How much timber got got? Did it really destroy the ability to retire there? BTW, my Mom's family is from Washington County.
> "Gaddis was negligent for failing to exercise proper care in identifying the boundaries of the Robertson property" it would seem to me that all the blame would fall on Gaddis? The cutter relied on Gaddis and I am sure the cutter thought they were doing right, obviously Gaddis was wrong BUT if Gaddis had assured the owner and the cutter they could mark the line and was in the business of marking cut lines why would they think different and be on the hook for it? I think there must be missing information here? How much timber got got? Did it really destroy the ability to retire there? BTW, my Mom's family is from Washington County.
Probably, the land owner has the sue the adjacent land owner that hired the incompetents and benefited from their work ... the neighbor can then sue the Forester that gave the bad info to recover against their claim. Do Foresters may have something similar to E&O, but I doubt they'd cover him if he was practicing outside of his area of expertise.
Maine timber trespass case: shoulda had it surveyed case su
Looks like the case summary itself is available. I haven't read this yet (it's Christmas!):