He stopped at the edge of my yard and called out. I walked down to meet him at the property line. I did not invite him further onto my land. He opened with a smile. He said he had been meaning to come over. He said he wanted to talk about the tree situation. He used that word situation. I said nothing. I let him continue. He said the trees had been causing problems.
He said they blocked the light to his deck in the afternoon. He said they were dropping branches on his side of the fence and he had been worried about liability. He said he had hired a crew and that it had all been taken care of now. He said this the way someone describes a minor administrative task, a thing that needed doing and had been done.
I watched his face while he talked. He was not nervous. He was not apologetic. He was explaining the way a man explains something to someone he does not consider an equal. When he finished, I asked him one question. I asked him whether he had received written permission from me before cutting any trees on my property. He paused just briefly.
Then he said he had not realized the trees were fully on my side. He said the line was not clear. He said the crew had made their best judgment. I nodded slowly. I told him that I had a survey on file. I told him that a retired county surveyor had walked the line and confirmed all 11 stumps were on my property. I told him I had an arborist report documenting the species, age, and value of the trees.
I told him I had photographs from the previous October showing the trees standing and photographs from the morning I found them gone. His smile faded while I was talking. I told him I had not yet decided how to proceed, but that I wanted him to understand the situation clearly. I used his word back to him deliberately.
