Goodman v. Superior Court

In Goodman v. Superior Court (1978) 84 Cal.App.3d 621, the court inferentially concluded the head is a "member" of the body within the meaning of section 203 by holding a facial scar of four to five inches long, extending from above the eyebrow to the cheek and with no functional impairment could reasonably be found by the trier of fact to be mayhem within section 203. Goodman, supra, involved a pretrial writ. In denying the defendant's petition for mandamus to declare as a matter of law that the injury involved did not constitute mayhem, the court acknowledged the absence of any California case law "directly holding that a scarring wound to a member of the body, which, unlike the eyes, ears, nose, lips or tongue, has no distinctly separate function, constitutes mayhem." (At p. 625.)