State v. Lindsey

74 P.2d 1021, 193 Wash. 241
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 11, 1938
DocketNo. 26825. Department One.
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 74 P.2d 1021 (State v. Lindsey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Lindsey, 74 P.2d 1021, 193 Wash. 241 (Wash. 1938).

Opinion

*242 Geraghty, J.

By the verdict of a jury, the appellants were found guilty of the crime of first degree forgery. After motions for new trial and arrest of judgment had been overruled, judgment was entered sentencing the appellants to terms in the state penitentiary. The sentences imposed were to run concurrently with sentences imposed in another criminal action. The conviction of the appellants in the latter case was sustained in State v. Lindsey, 192 Wash. 356, 73 P. (2d) 738.

In the appellants’ brief in that case, as in this, it is suggested that the two cases, for the saving of time, be argued and considered together, as many of the assignments of error are the same in both. This is true, and, where any of the assignments raised in the present case are controlled by our decision in the other, they will be disposed of by reference to it.

The information filed under Rem. Rev. Stat., § 2587 [P. C. § 8863], charges as follows:

“That the said defendants, E. R. Lindsey and Elbert B. Lindsey, in the County of Spokane, State of Washington, on or about the 16th day of April, 1935, then and there being, did then and there wilfully, knowingly, falsely, fraudulently and feloniously utter and put off as true to Dr. C. W. Countryman a certain false and forged writing, to-wit: the signature of L. M. Davenport 'on an instrument in writing commonly known as a draft in words and figures as follows:
“$50.00 Spokane, Wash., April 16, 1935. 19......
“Twenty days after date-Pay to the order of Dr. C. W. Countryman-Fifty. and 00 — 100-Dollars
“Value received and charge the same to account of
“Accepted:
“To L. M. Davenport. Elbert B. Lindsey.
“No...........................................
and that the said defendants,''E. ,R. Lindsey and Elbert B. Lindsey then and there being, did then and there well know the said instrument in writing to be *243 false and forged, and the same was then and there uttered and published by the said E. R. Lindsey and Elbert B. Lindsey with the intent then and there to injure and defraud the said Dr. C. W. Countryman.”

The state’s evidence tends to prove that the appellants attempted to obtain fifty dollars from Dr. C. W. Countryman upon a draft for that sum drawn, in his' favor, by appellant Elbert B. Lindsey, and purporting on its face to have been accepted in writing by L. M. Davenport, proprietor of the Davenport hotel, in Spokane. Appellants, E. R. Lindsey, father, and Elbert B. Lindsey, son, called upon Dr. Countryman. Elbert told him that he had made a trip into the country and had shipped some sheep for Mr. Davenport, out of the proceeds of which he was to receive ten per cent; that this sum was coming from some place in the east, to which the sheep were shipped. Dr. Countryman said that he knew nothing about drafts and did not care to accept it. The father told the doctor that, if he cared to cash the draft and accommodate him for that period of time — the draft being payable twenty days after its date, April 16th — he need not worry about Mr. Davenport’s acceptance of the draft. They identified the L. M. Davenport whose acceptance was endorsed on the draft as the owner or manager of the Davenport hotel. The money sought was to be paid to both appellants.

Having heard that some spurious commercial paper, purported to have been signed by Mr. Davenport, was in circulation, Mr. McCluskey, the manager of the Davenport hotel, reported the matter to the police. The investigation of the police led to the arrest of the appellants. After arrest, they were searched bv the police and the draft here in question was found, with some other drafts, upon the person of appellant E. R. Lindsey, in the Spokane hotel, and held as evidence.

*244 The first assignment urged by the appellants for reversal is the reception in evidence of the draft, identified as state’s exhibit “No. 1,” as well as other papers taken from appellant E. R. Lindsey at the time of the arrest. Prior to the trial, the appellants interposed a motion to suppress, which was denied. The instrument involved in the case of State v. Lindsey, supra, was taken from the appellants at' the same time and under the same circumstances, and what we said in disposing of the appellants’ contention in that case is controlling here.

The second error assigned is based upon the court’s failure to sustain the demurrer to the information upon the ground that it charged no crime. In support of this contention, appellants cite numerous cases on the subject of negotiable instruments not applicable here. The information is based on Rem. Rev. Stat., § 2587, providing that:

“Every person who, knowing the same to be forged or altered, and with intent to defraud, shall utter, offer, dispose of or put off as true, or have in his possession with intent so to utter, offer, dispose of or put off any forged writing, instrument or other thing, the false making, forging or altering of which is punishable as forgery, shall be guilty of forgery in the same degree as if he had forged the same.”

Rem. Rev. Stat., § 2583 [P. C. § 8859], defining first degree forgery, is, in part, as follows:

“Every person who, with intent to defraud, shall forge any writing or instrument by which any claim, privilege, right, obligation or authority, or any right or title to property, real or personal, is or purports to be, or upon the happening of some future event may be, evidenced, created, acknowledged, transferred, increased, diminished, encumbered, defeated, discharged or affected, or any request for the payment of money or delivery of property or any assurance of money or *245 property, . . . shall be guilty of forgery in the first degree, ...”

In Rem. Rev. Stat., § 2590 [P. C. § 8866], it is provided:

“Within the provisions of this subdivision relating to forgery, a ‘written instrument,’ or a ‘writing,’ shall include . . . any signature or writing purporting to be a signature of or intended to bind an individual, partnership, corporation or association or an officer thereof.”

The appellants were charged with uttering an instrument known by them to bear the forged acceptance of Mr. Davenport, with the intent to defraud.

The appellants’ third assignment is based upon the court’s refusal to give their requested instruction No. 7 and the giving in lieu thereof its instruction No. 3. No exception was taken to the court’s instruction No. 3, and the exception taken to the court’s refusal to give appellants’ instruction No. 7 is general in its terms, merely stating that the requested instruction is a correct statement of the law as to the drawing of negotiable instruments. The court is not required to give instructions on every abstract question of law suggested by the defendant, especially where the instructions, as a whole, as in this case, adequately present the issues to the jury.

In the court’s instruction No.

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Related

State v. Louie
413 P.2d 7 (Washington Supreme Court, 1966)
State v. Phillips
253 P.2d 919 (Washington Supreme Court, 1953)
State v. Boren
253 P.2d 939 (Washington Supreme Court, 1953)
Lindsey v. Leavy
149 F.2d 899 (Ninth Circuit, 1945)

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Bluebook (online)
74 P.2d 1021, 193 Wash. 241, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-lindsey-wash-1938.