§ 22-5-605 - Suit involving state title -- Cutting or removing timber pending final determination. - Arkansas Statutes

22-5-605. Suit involving state title -- Cutting or removing timber pending final determination.

(a) In all suits pending in any courts of this state where the state is a party of record claiming title to, or any interest in, any real estate, the title to which is in controversy in the suit, neither the party claiming adversely to the state in the suit nor any other person, firm, or corporation, whether a party to the record in the cause or not, shall, pending a final determination of the litigation, cut or remove from the lands any trees, logs, or timber thereon, except as provided in this section.

(b) The court in which the cause of action is pending or the judge of the court in vacation may permit a party to the record in the cause, who is claiming in the cause of actions an interest adverse to the state in the lands and the trees, logs, or timber growing or being thereon, to cut or remove the trees, logs, or timber upon condition that the party shall file in the court, and in the cause, a petition praying such permission and containing a correct description of the particular lands on which the trees, logs, or timber desired to be cut or removed are situated, a correct estimate, by forty-acre tracts, of the trees, logs, or timber and the value of the trees, logs, or timber.

(c) The petition shall be duly verified.

(d) Upon reasonable notice to the adverse party, the petition, the allegations of which may be controverted, may be taken up by the court or judge in vacation and, if granted, shall be upon condition that the petitioners shall enter into a good and sufficient bond to the State of Arkansas. The bonds must be approved by the clerk of the court, in an amount not less than the reasonable cash market value of the trees or logs desired to be cut and removed, obligating the petitioner and his or her sureties to pay to the State of Arkansas all damages it may sustain by the granting of the petition, should it be finally determined in the cause that the state is the owner of the timber cut, of the logs cut and removed, or of any interest therein.

(e) It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, or corporation who has not complied with the provisions of this section to cut any growing timber situated on the lands referred to in the cause of action or to remove from the lands any logs or trees lying or being thereon.

(f) If it is deemed necessary to protect against such trespass and hold intact the rights of the state, pending a final hearing and determination of the cause, the court or the judge in vacation may, at the instance of the state and without bond, grant an injunction or restraining order prohibiting trespass until the cause is finally determined.