Commonwealth v. Kepper

Decided November 15, 1873

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1873-11-15

Indictment containing two counts, the first for forgery, and the second for the uttering of “an order for the payment of money,” of the tenor following: “ Mr. Campbell, please give John Kepper ten'dollars. Frank Neff.” The defendant demurred to the indictment, because the writing there set forth was not one of which forgery could be committed. The demurrer was overruled.

Relies on Commonwealth v. Fisher

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1873-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently July 2012

6 state decisions

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Wells, J.

¶1The written request to Campbell to “ give John Kepper ten dollars,” signed by Neff, was an order for money, within the meaning of the Gen. Sts. c. 162, § 1.

¶2To sustain the charge of forgery, it was not essential that Campbell should have had in his hands any money due or belonging to Neff; or that he should have been under any legal obligation to accept and pay the order. Commonwealth v. Fisher, 17 Mass. 46. The King v. Lockett, 1 Leach, (4th ed.) 94.

¶3The questions put to Neff in regard to his signature were unobjectionable both in form and substance.

¶4The narration, in English, of the defendant’s admissions, made of court, in German, was covered by his oath as a witness. It is only when testimony, given in a foreign tongue, requires translation in court, that an interpreter is sworn specially for that purpose.

¶5Judgment on the verdict.