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www.arborage.com Arbor Age / September 2014 17 a case where you are not completely comfortable with the local laws and ordinances, do not perform any service until you know exactly what you can or cannot do. Waiting a week to perform work while you wait for the neighbors to come to an agreement is much better than spending a week in court. Brandon Gallagher Watson is creative director at Rainbow Treecare Scientifi c Advancements, and is an ISA Certifi ed Arborist (#MN- 4086A). Additional Resources Tree Owner's Rights and Responsibilities (University of Tennessee) https://utextension.tennessee.edu/publications/Documents/ SP687.pdf Trees and Neighbor Law http://stores.treeandneighborlaw.com/ How to Recognize Hazard Trees (USDA Forest Service) http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/uf/sotuf/chapter_3/ appendix_b/appendixb.htm as a park or a street, and you were injured by a failing tree, you may have grounds for a tort claim. Tort is a term derived from the Latin term torquere, meaning twisted or wronged. Tort law dates back to Medieval England and, while tort covers many different types of laws, they are commonly used in the United States as legal means of holding a public entity, such as a mu- nicipality, responsible for damages that occurred due to the municipality's negligence with regard to maintaining the safety of their public trees. Tort claims can mean big dollars paid out by the munici- palities. In New York's Central Park, several recent tree-related events have resulted in signifi cant settlements. In 2009, a father of two was injured when a large rotted tree branch fell and struck him in the head in Central Park. The case was settled later that year for $11.5 million. Just three months after that, another man was killed by a failing American elm, resulting the city paying $3 million to his family. In both cases, the suits claimed that the City of New York and the Central Park Con- servancy were negligent, and should have properly inspected and maintained the park trees. The Parks Department has less than 100 climbers and pruners for more than 2.6 million trees, so the expectation that each and every tree is structurally sound is absurd, but the city is still held to this standard. My neighbor's tree looks like it's going to fall on my house. What should I do? Homeowners are responsible for maintaining the trees on their property. Legally, they have two duties: make reasonable inspections and take care to ensure the tree is safe. Therefore, if a reasonable inspection by an arborist shows that the tree could be dangerous, your neighbor is responsible for the tree removal. If your neighbor does not remove the dangerous tree, and the tree does in fact cause damage, your neighbor can be held liable. If you have spoken to your neighbor about the tree, and they have not done anything about it, the tree may consti- tute a nuisance. You could fi le a nuisance claim, and if the court sides with you, they can order the tree removed by its owner. My neighbors complain that the tree in my yard is blocking their vista view; do I have to trim it? Usually, no. So long as the tree is not posing a safety hazard, there are not normally laws that protect a person's view. Certain communities or homeowner associations, however, may have height limits or view ordinances that may make you responsible for keeping the trees short. If there are no legal guidelines for tree height, talking with the neighbor about how much they would like the tree reduced by and getting them to pay, or at least split, the pruning costs may help resolve it. Your clients will often look to you, as the arborist, to be the legal expert as to what they can or can't do with a disputed tree. We are, however, tree experts and not lawyers. If there is ever