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49 Ala. 16

Thompson v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided January 15, 1873

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1873-01-15

From the Circuit Court of Tuscaloosa. Tried before the Hon. Wm. S. Mudd. Tbe indictment in tbis case charged that the defendant, before the finding thereof, “ falsely, and with the intent to injure or defraud, did forge an order purporting to be the act of one John A. Thompson, which order is in words and figures following: ‘474. Nutton Clumbus'St. July 25th, 1872, Boston, Mass. Mr. Moody, banker, Tuskaloos^, Ala.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“A check is a written order, or request, for the payment of money, addressed to a bank or banker.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 488 So. 2d 44 - Shubert v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1873-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently August 2015

6 state decisions

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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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

PECK, C. J.

¶1— Forgery is the false making of a written instrument, for the purpose of fraud and deceit. Bouvier’s Law Die. vol. 1, 582. The instrument described in the indictment, and charged to be forged by the defendant, is an order in writing for the payment of money. Section 3635, Revised Code, declares that any person who, with intent to injure or defraud, forges any check, &c., is guilty of forgery. The order, in this case, charged to be forged, is a check within the meaning of said section 3635. A check is a written order, or request, for the payment of money, addressed to a bank or banker. The order, in this case, is addressed to Mr.-Moody, banker, Tuscaloosa Ala., and requests him to let the bearer, son of the alleged drawer, have the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars, &c. This order being the subject of forgery, and the charge that it was forged by the defendant being in form analogous to the forms given in the Appendix to the Revised Code, the demurrer to the indictment was properly overruled.

¶2On the trial, the defendant asked the court to charge the jury that if they believed, from the evidence, that at the time of the making of the said order John A. Thompson, the alleged drawer, had no existence, they must acquit the defendant. There was no error in refusing to give this charge!

¶3Forgery may be committed by the false making of a written instrument, in the name of a fictitious person. 3 Arch. Cr. Pl. M. p. 538.

¶4The defendant also asked the court to charge the jury that if they believed, from the evidence, that said John A. Thompson had ño funds in the bank of Judge Moody, at the time the said order was drawn, they must acquit the defendant. If the said John A. Thompson was a fictitious person, he would certainly have no funds in the bank ; yet we have seen that forgery may be committed by the false making of a written instrument, in the name of a fictitious person. This charge was properly refused. The judgment is affirmed.

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