State v. Brossart

MESCHKE, Justice.

[¶ 1] Rodney Brossart appealed a jury conviction for plowing a section line. We reverse and remand for a new trial because the trial court incorrectly instructed the jury.

[¶2] Brossart farms land in sections 30 and 31 of Williams Township. He has regularly plowed across the unimproved section line between these sections, he says tó control weeds and to make it more passable for travel. His father, too, had done so for many years.

[¶ 3] In spring 1996, someone complained to the Williams Township Board of Supervisors that the section lines between sections 30 and 31 in that…