TREBLE DAMAGES

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

treble damages
    n 1: three times the amount that a court would normally find the
         injured party entitled to

from Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)

TREBLE DAMAGES, remedies. In actions arising ex contractu some statutes give 
treble damages; and these statutes have been liberally construed to mean 
actually treble damages; for example, if the jury give twenty dollars 
damages for a forcible entry the court will award forty dollars more, so as 
to make the total amount of damages sixty dollars. 4 B. & C. 154; McClell. 
Rep. 567. 
     2. The construction on the words treble damages, is different from that 
which has been put on the words treble costs. (q.v.) Vide 6 S. & R. 288; 1 
Browne, R. 9; 1 Cowen, R. 160, 175,176, 584; 8 Cowen, 115.