greattigerdane, from your description I visualise an older plant with a single cane reaching up some 8' or more with leaves attached on the upper half only. The plant is probably in a 14" container and likely to be pot-bound and its 'metabollic rate' is comparatively slow. I must say that I have never seen a single stalk that tall. Have a close look and if there are "sideshoots", you should be able to cut back them with no serious setback. I often see new and vibrant growth on older canes which have been cut back near the top. Two shoots, on opposite sides of the stalk been selected to continue its growth and fullness at the top. If not, my experience has been that it is not good for a plant to have its roots and top(s) pruned at the same time. I would try to stimulate growth by cautiously root pruning and/or manipulating the growing conditions like temperature, light or even fertilizer. I would then air-layer the plant in the area where the leafy top begins. This will favor (I wanted to say ensure) the 'continuity' of the mother plant and a side-benefit might be the development of dormant buds below the air layer. It will be a slow process. I have tried the above and after some four months there are roots in the air-layer and there is a 'swelling' of one or two buds near the soil line in one pot, on the canes which I had cut back to about 6". I expect things will speed up from here on. I set sections of the cut off canes but they rotted, mainly because I did not use a conducive medium. I expect that your neighbor wants to keep the original plant alive and rejuvenated. Many people do because they like the tree-trunk appearance near the base. I have to confess a measure of indifference to that but this may be due to a deficiency in my artistic appreciation.

... happens all the time, Susan. I often reply to old posts because I know others will come across the information at some later point in time while they are searching for information, so don't feel like you've wasted anyone's time, including your own. Unless your tree came into being as the product of a seed germinating, it doesn't really have a tap root/ primary root in the sense that a tap root is the first organ to appear after a seed germinates. Almost all ficus that you would buy at retail would be the product of propagation by cuttings or tissue culture, so all the roots produced by those methods would be considered to be of the adventitious type, which simply means roots that do not occur where they would normally grow. However - that information is provided for those who might be interested in that sort of stuff, and not meant to call into question what you said. For all intents and purposes, several of the plant's roots will have grown deep in the soil where they act as primary roots/ tap roots in that they serve as anchorage against toppling and as conductive plumbing for (primarily but not exclusively) water. Your tree's dependency on you for water will be nullified by new roots which will grow deep into the soil to take the place of those severed. Al

Your money is probably better spent on new trees than an attorney. In theory you might be able to recover some damages if you can prove the trees were on the property line or your property. But unless they're super-valuable trees you're not going to get a ton of money, and the fees for attorneys are going to run you a lot. Rather than pay an attorney $10000 why not spend $5000 on a few nice, somewhat mature trees and put them inside your property line.

its wasnt your tree... so there is nothing to be sad about ... most things that are shade TOLERANT ... do just fine in sun ... there arent many things that REQUIRE shade ... that said.. if too much sun.. they tend to get ugly in the summer.. with leaf scorch or some such ... but they rarely die from such ... and a lot of things actually have more vigor in sun .... and of course.. how far south you are.. makes a big difference as ot the intensity of the sun .... frankly.. you observe it for this year... and then decide if it should be moved.. in the next proper dormancy period ... whenever that may be.. for your area ... ken