People v. Goodin
Supreme Court of California
69 P. 85 (1902)
After a new public road replaced an old one running through his son's land, B.F. Goodin (defendant) dug up the old road where it crossed his son's property and fenced it in, believing in good faith the old road had been abandoned and that he therefore had a legal right to reclaim the land; he was charged and convicted of willfully and feloniously injuring a public highway, with the trial court instructing the jury that his good-faith belief in his legal right was not a valid defense and striking his testimony to that effect. Goodin appealed.
Whether a defendant's genuine, reasonable mistaken belief that a road had been abandoned and that he had a legal right to dig it up constitutes a valid defense to a charge requiring malicious injury to a public highway.