126 Pa. Super. 461 - Commonwealth v. Pearlman’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 5 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Appellant contends that the charge as quoted above is erroneous because the Act of March 31, 1860, P.L. 382, § 169, 18 P.S. § 3631, applies only to forgeries and not to the making, uttering, or publishing of instruments which contain false statements but not forged signatures. * * * In Biles v. Com., 32 Pa. 529 , 75 Am.Dec. 568 , it was held that the making of a false entry in a journal by a bookkeeper with intent to defraud his employer was a forgery at common law. The forgery was perpetrated by the false addition of the items of cash from bills receivable on a page of the journal of the firm. “A year later, the act of 1860, supra, under which appellant was indicted, was enacted. It reads: ‘If any person shall fraudulently make, sign, alter, utter or publish, or be concerned in the fraudulently making, signing, altering, uttering or publishing any written instrument, other than notes, bills, checks or drafts already mentioned, to the prejudice of another’s right, with intent to defraud any person or body corporate, or shall fraudulently cause or procure the same to be done, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction, be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and to undergo an imprisonment, by separate or solitary confinement at labor, not exceeding ten years.’ * * * “It is pointed out in Purdon’s historical note that, ‘This section is intended to embrace the large class of forgeries of written instruments, not embraced in the preceding sect”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Provident Trust Co. v. National Surety Corp.

2. ““It seems, therefore, that by the act of 1860 it was intended to make statutory the common-law rule of the Biles case. * * * “The rule of the Biles case seems to govern the case at bar. Under that case the charge of the lower court was a proper statement of the law. If this appellant knew that Ethel Warren was a married woman and yet induced her to give bail, knowing that a married woman could not give bail, or if he induced her to make false statements as to assessed value or as to other securities, for which it had been pledged, then he was concerned in fraudulently making the bond.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Provident Trust Co. v. National Surety Corp.