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118 Mass. 439

Commonwealth v. Dallinger

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided September 1, 1875

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1875-09-01

<p>An instrument, purporting to be signed by J. S., which is made payable to the order of J. S., is not a promissory note until indorsed, and an indictment for forgery which charges in separate counts the making and uttering of such a promissory note, without setting out an indorsement by J. S., cannot be sustained, it appearing in evidence at the trial that there was but one J. S.</p> <p>An indictment charged that the defendant did falsely make, alter, forge and counterfeit a certain indorsement upon a certain false, forged and counterfeited promissory note for the payment of money, and set forth the note and indorsement, by which it appeared that the note was payable to the order of J. S., and purported to be signed and indorsed by J. S. Held, that the allegation that the defendant forged the indorsement upon a promissory note might be sustained, although the writing became a promissory note only by means of such indorsement.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1875-09-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently March 1959

6 state decisions

30187518801890190019101920193019401950decided

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.

¶1• It appearing in evidence at the trial that there was but one A. P. Morse, it followed that the writing which pur*441ported to be signed by him, purported also to be payable to hia own order. Such a writing would not constitute a contract, and therefore would not become a promissory note until indorsed by him. With this fact in the case, all the allegations of the first and second counts being sustained by proof, the offence of forgery, or uttering a forged promissory note, would not be made out.

¶2The exceptions must therefore be sustained as to the first and second counts.

¶3The third count is for forging the indorsement of the name of A. P. Morse, upon the samé note. With that indorsement it purported to be a valid contract, and was, in form, a promissory note. Both the body of the note and the indorsement are set out in the indictment. The allegation that the defendant forged the indorsement upon a promissory note may well be sustained, although the writing became a promissory note only by means of such indorsement. The principal allegation may be taken to have reference to the character of the instrument when so indorsed. In setting forth the instrument and the indorsement, the designation of the face of the writing as the note may be taken to have been by way of distinction merely, and not as qualifying or limiting the sense of the previous allegation. As to this count the exceptions are Overruled.

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