People v. Sander

NOURSE, J.

Appellant was convicted of the crime denounced by section 476 of the Penal Code—the malting, passing, and uttering a fictitious cheek with intent to defraud. The facts are that on April 8, 1921, he appeared in the office of certain bond dealers in the city of Oakland and arranged for the purchase of $10,000 worth of Victory bonds and delivered to the dealers his check made payable to their order in the sum of $9,912.91, signed

“A.

A. Sander.” In return he received from the dealers Victory bonds of the par value of $10,000. In this transaction he gave a fictitious name and address. In June of the same year he obtained from certain bond dealers in the city of Los Angeles $3,000 worth of Liberty bonds by delivering a check bearing the name of C. H. Fisher, drawn upon a Los Angeles bank. The check purported to be certified, but the certification was forged, and Fisher, if not a fictitious person, at least, had no account in the bank upon which the check was drawn. About the same time he obtained from another bond dealer $5,000 worth of bonds by the same

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method. He then presented a similar check for $5,000 drawn on the same bank in the name of the same person and containing a forged certification, whereby he obtained $3,000 worth of bonds from another dealer. In October, 1921, he appeared at the Central National Bank in Oakland and made a deposit therein of $5,000. On November 1st he made an additional deposit of $1,000. These two deposits were both made in the name of Gray. After making these deposits the defendant purchased $5,000 worth of Liberty bonds and arranged for the purchase of $10,000 worth additional. On November 2d he offered for deposit to his account a check drawn on the Citizens’ National Bank of Los Angeles in the sum of $10,000, payable to the order of Gray and purporting to be signed by one Platt. At the same time he made and uttered to the Central National Bank his check in the sum of $10,009.96, to which he signed the- name of Gray. Before honoring the check the bank ascertained through inquiry at the Citizens’ National Bank of Los Angeles that the check drawn upon that bank was worthless and the defendant was immediately taken into custody. He was tried on the transaction of April 8, 1921/

Upon this appeal two assignments of error were originally made. First, that the testimony relating to the so-called Central National Bank transaction occurring on October 31st to November 2, 1921, was improperly admitted; second, that the trial court erred in refusing appellant’s motion for a new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence.