A. No person shall use the privilege of filing notices hereunder for the purpose of slandering the title to land and, in any action brought for the purpose of quieting title to land, if the court shall find that any person has filed a claim for that reason, he shall award the plaintiff all the costs of such action, including such attorney fees as the court may allow to the plaintiff, and, in addition, shall decree that the defendant asserting such claim shall pay to plaintiff three times the damages that plaintiff may have sustained as the result of such notice of claim having been so filed for record.

B. A quiet title action shall be independent of any criminal action that may be filed against the defendant, and there shall be no requirement that the defendant in a quiet title action be convicted of any criminal act.