As we mentioned recently, Ron and I were involved in a trial that kept us busy and away from blogging. I’m reading all of the cases we missed and a small claims case from the Indiana Court of Appeals jumped out at me. The Court’s holding in Scheckel v. NLI, Inc., ___ N.E.2d ___ (Ind. Ct. App. 2011), Cause No. 02A04-1010-SC-645, puts many of Indiana’s landowners on notice that they should check their trees, from time to time.
In this case, Scheckel owned two adjacent lots in Fort Wayne, Indiana. A chain link fence separates the properties and a walkway on one property runs parallel to and within five feet of the fence. A tree was growing near the fence towards the front of the property without the walkway, but did not touch the fence.
Scheckel sold the property with the tree to NLI. Over the course of time, the tree grew into the fence and its roots grew under the walkway, damaging both the fence and the walkway. The gate in the fence was rendered unusable, and the walkway cracked and buckled. Scheckel filed a small claims action against NLI, but the trial corut granted judgment to NLI after a bench trial on the grounds that the size and placement of the tree caused the damage to the fence and walkway and that a land owner is not liable for harm caused outside his land by a natural condition of the land. Shceckel appealed.
On appeal, the Court described the natural condition rule, but held that it should not apply to modern urban and residential living.
The fact that the issue was over the placement and size of the tree, rather than its health, did not matter.
Thus, NLI owed Sheckel a duty and breached that duty.
The Court’s decision appears to break new ground in Indiana and reminds all in residential or urban areas to check our trees from time to time – and to be careful where you plant them.
Lesson:
- An urban or residential landowner has a duty to exercise reasonable care to protect neighbors from the risk of personal injury or property damage caused by a tree growing upon the landowner’s property
