People v. Ryan

CONREY, P. J.

The defendant was convicted on twenty-six counts of an indictment, of which nine counts charged the commission of forgery and seventeen charged the commission of the crime of forgery of a fictitious name. There was no demurrer to the complaint, and the points on appeal relate to the case as made by the evidence.

Appellant’s first point is that the checks described in counts V, XI, XVI, XXIII, XXVII and XXXII were not forgeries or forgeries of a fictitious name within the meaning of the statute. Count V may be taken as representing this group. The defendant was accused therein of the crime of

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“forgery of a fictitious name, a felony.” The document containing the alleged forgery reads as follows:

“Los Angeles Branch 16-66

Bank of Italy

Savings Commercial Trust

“Los Angeles, Cal., 3/22 1823

“Pay to the order of cash .....................$2,781.00

“Twenty seven eighty one no/...................Dollars.

“M. P. Layton.”

It was alleged, among other things, that the said check “was then and there false and fictitious to the then knowledge of the said William Francis Ryan, and there was not then and there or at all any such person or individual as M. P. Layton, and the said William Francis Ryan then and there well knowing that he had no authority so to sign the name of said fictitious person to and upon said check.”

Appellant claims that because the check was payable to the order of cash and was his own personal check, as the bank well knew, although signed in the assumed name, such assumed name represented a real person and cannot be held to be fictitious. The argument is grounded upon the proposition, to which we agree, that a person may adopt a name different from that by which he has been known, and may transact business in that name. If this be done in good faith and not for the purpose of defrauding in the transaction, the use of such assumed name, even in the drawing of a check, would not be criminal. The use of such a name in that manner would not be the use of a fictitious name within the meaning of the statute. The persons guilty of forgery as described in section 470 of the Penal Code include one who, “with intent to defraud, signs the name of another person, or of a fictitious person, knowing that he has no authority so to do, to . . . any . . . check ...” Section 476 of the Penal Code imposes punishment in the state prison upon one who “makes, passes, utters, or publishes, with intention to defraud any other person, . . . any fictitious bill, note or check, purporting to be the bill, note, or check, or other instrument in writing for the payment of money or property of some bank, corporation, copartnership, or individual, when, in fact, there is no such bank, corporation, copartnership, or individual in existence, knowing the bill, note, check, or instrument in writing to be fictitious.”