State v. . Headrick

Supreme Court of North Carolina
State v. . Headrick, 48 N.C. 375 (N.C. 1856)
Battle

State v. . Headrick

Opinion of the Court

Battle, J.

The present indictment is framed upon the 103d section of the 34th chapter of the Eevised Code, which enacts that, If any person shall unlawfully and wilfully burn, destroy, pull down, inj are or remove any fence, wall or other enclosure, or any part thereof surrounding or about any yard, garden cultivated field, or pasture,” he shall be deemed to be guilty of a misdemeanor. The special verdict states, *376 that the part of the fence, for the taking away of which the defendant was indicted, was “ unlawfully and without license” put upon his land by the prosecutor. How it would be unlawful for the defendant to remove this obstruction from his own land, we are unable to conceive. If the prosecutor sustained any damage, it was in consequence of his own wrongful act, and he cannot make the defendant criminally responsible for it. “To subject a person to the penalties of the Act in question, he must be guilty of trespass,” of which the defendant in the present case, certainly was not. State v. Williams, Busb. Rep. 197. The judgment must be affirmed.

Pee Cueiam.

Judgment affirmed.

Reference

Full Case Name
State v. . Daniel Headrick.
Cited By
1 case
Status
Published
Syllabus
It is not indictable for one to remove a fence from his own land which had been unlawfully put there by another, although it did partially enclose a cultivated field belonging to that other. In order to subject one to the penalties of the Act of 1816, for removing a fence, he must be guilty of a trespass.