70 percent of trees in the U.S. are found in urban areas. And where there are people there are bound to be disputes. Sometimes those disputes end up before Columbus attorney Victor Merullo who specializes in tree law.
Two years ago a family living near Bexley learned that their neighbor planned to have a 100-year-old tree, which was mostly on their property, cut down.
“It was a great big, every bit of 50 feet, this tree was. And the kids used to hang on it and everything,” says Edward Scocco.
Scocco says he talked to his neighbor and sent her several certified letters.
“We told her, “No.” I told her if she cuts the tree down I’m going to call the police and I am going to sue her,” Scocco says.
But one day the Scoccos came home to find the tree was gone. Ed’s wife Kelly got on the internet to find an attorney.
“I was pleasantly surprised to see that probably one of the best tree attorneys in the country was located right here in Columbus, Ohio,” Kelly Scocco says.
Victor Merullo has been practicing law since 1975. He says he’s always loved trees. He says they’re not only environmentally important, but psychologically important as well.
Merullo studied horticulture at Ohio State University before earning a law degree. Early in his career he eagerly accepted an invitation from a nursery association to give a talk about tree law. But he says he could not find anything in print on the subject.
“When I first started to work on trees, there was very little tree law. If a tree fell and killed someone it was, ‘Oh well,’ no one was really concerned about that because there wasn’t really any case law or statutes dealing with your duties to take care of trees,” Merullo says.
There was, however, English common law, which influenced law in much of the U.S. Merullo says that hundreds of years ago, English magistrates dealt with tree issues. They ruled for instance that a person had the right to cut off the limbs of a neighbor’s tree that hung over their property. The wood, however, belonged to the tree owner.
What about a tree’s fruit?
“The Magistrates again decided that the owner of the tree owned the apple because if they didn’t reach that decision it would be encouraging theft by having the neighbor reaching over someone’s property and stealing their apples and making an apple pie thereby depriving the owner of the tree from his apple pie,” Merullo says.
Years have passed. The river birch trees that Merullo planted outside his Front Street law offices have matured. And the laws regarding trees have multiplied. Merullo has been involved in helping write a number of decisions. He lectures across the country. He’s also written extensively. His first publication was a pamphlet titled “The Law of Trees.” Books followed. Now he writes a witty daily blog.
“We’re going to entertain you with the case and then we’re going to entertain you with the facts, then we’re going to give you the law and show you how it applies. We’re not going to make the law a mystery,” Merullo says.
Merullo says one goal is to avoid needless, expensive litigation. Once the parties in a suit understand the law, he says there’s a chance the matter won’t end up in court. That’s what happened with the Scoccos’ case.
“Vic is good. And they knew they had nothing to stand on so after a while they sent it to their insurance company,” says Edward Scocco.
Victor Merullo hopes his blog, treeandneighborlawblog.com, will help prevent future conflicts.
“Maybe they’ll get over this ego thing where, ‘I always gotta be right and I can’t work with my neighbor.’ Don’t be so hateful; try to work it out and try to recognize the value of the tree at the same time,” he says.