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A jury has awarded $717,000 in damages to a family whose Southwest Portland home was crushed by a falling tree in 2024 after they had begged the city for two years to let them cut it down.
On Friday, jurors in a Multnomah County Circuit Courtroom delivered the verdict in the lawsuit of Joel and Sarah Bond, finding fault with the city of Portland’s Urban Forestry division for refusing the couple’s request to remove the 150-foot Douglas fir that crashed into their second story, just feet away from their 6-year-old daughter.
“I’m glad we were able to get them to face accountability, even though they never took accountability on their own,” Sarah Bond tells WW. “This whole thing has been very surreal, like we’re living in some kind of dark comedy. And this trial was kind of the same feeling.”
Willamette Week was the first to report on the Bonds’ ordeal and a subsequent article, “The Taking Tree,” found the couple was in fact far from alone in experiencing deep frustration with the city’s tree regulators and stringent Tree Code. Following publication, the city council relocated tree regulation away from the division and its leader, City Forester Jenn Cairo.
The Bonds had purchased the home in the Hillsdale neighborhood in 2022 and shortly afterward sought to remove two Douglas fir trees that stood ominously over the home, according to the lawsuit, fearing they could be a danger to the home. But the city inspector who spent five minutes assessing the tree determined it was not dead, dying or dangerous. (Another arborist independently hired by the couple after the tree fell determined it was 80% rotten.) The couple opted to not appeal the city’s decision, which would have included paying a $200 fee.
In January 2024, a brief but intense winter storm sent the Douglas fir crashing into the Bonds’ house. When questioned by the City Council shortly after the storm, Cairo said she wasn’t aware of specific instances of trees crushing homes after the city had rejected the homeowner’s request for removal. She later apologized for those remarks, saying she was indeed aware of the Bonds’ situation.
The Bonds filed a claim in April 2025 seeking $4.7 million in damages, naming the city of Portland and Cairo as defendants. Cairo was later removed from the lawsuit.
At the start of trial last week, Judge Steffan Alexander struck from the lawsuit a demand for noneconomic damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress. The couple plans to appeal that determination.
Still, the jury ruled last week that the city should pay the Bonds $717,000 in actual damages.
Sarah Bond tells WW the family is still around six to seven months from returning to normal. They’ve had to move five times as their house is being repaired. Their yard remains torn up and many of their possessions are still packed away in some 200 boxes.
“I hate moving so much,” Bond says, “and we still have so much to do.”
