United States v. Victorian

31 M.J. 830, 1990 CMR LEXIS 963, 1990 WL 180666
CourtU.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Military Review
DecidedSeptember 26, 1990
DocketNMCM 89 3368
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 31 M.J. 830 (United States v. Victorian) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Military Review primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Victorian, 31 M.J. 830, 1990 CMR LEXIS 963, 1990 WL 180666 (usnmcmilrev 1990).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

The appellant was copiously charged with fraudulent enlistment on 1 October 1986 (Charge I and Specification); willful disobedience of the order of a noncommissioned officer (Sergeant Major Oakes) suspending his base driving privileges (Charge II and Specification); failure to obey a lawful order from Sergeant Major Oakes by wrongfully driving on a military installation (Charge III and Specification 1 [sic]); false official statements (Charge IV and Specifications 1 and 2); larceny (Charge V and Specifications 1 and 2); forgery (Charge VI and Specifications 1 through 5); dishonorable failure to pay a just debt and false swearing (Charge VII and Specifications 1 and 2); willful disobedience of the order of a noncommissioned officer (Ser[832]*832geant Major Oakes) suspending his base driving privileges (Additional Charge I and Specification — a modified version of Charge II and its Specification); failure to obey a lawful order from Sergeant Major Oakes by wrongfully driving on a military installation (Additional Charge II and Specification — a modified version of Charge III and its Specification 1 [sic]); and forgery (Additional Charge III and Specifications 1 and 2).

He pled guilty to Charge I and its Specification (fraudulent enlistment — the year of which is misstated in the special court-martial order to be 1989, vice 1986); not guilty to Charges II through V and their Specifications; guilty to Charge VI and (with exceptions) Specification 1 thereof (forgery of a motor vehicle installment sale contract), and not guilty to the remaining specifications of Charge VI; guilty to Charge VII and Specification 2 thereof (false swearing), and not guilty to Specification 1; not guilty to Additional Charge I and its Specification; and guilty to Additional Charges II and III and their Specifications. The findings were in accordance with the pleas. The adjudged sentence, which was approved by the convening authority, provides for reduction to pay grade E-l, confinement for three months, and a bad-conduct discharge.

The appellant perpetrated the fraudulent enlistment by enlisting in the name of his brother. Although his intent in assuming his brother’s name was obviously to defraud the Government, there is no indication whatever that the name was assumed to defraud subsequent creditors. When he later purchased an automobile on credit, it was necessary to do so in the name of his brother, since what credit he had by virtue of being an active-duty Marine had been established in the name of his brother, which he had assumed for purposes of his enlistment.

Appellate defense counsel assigned as error that the plea of guilty to fraudulent enlistment (Specification, Charge I) was improvident, because prosecution of that offense was barred by the statute of limitations, and the record failed to indicate that the appellant was aware of the availability of that plea in bar. Appellate government counsel have conceded the error, and we have determined that the concession is appropriate.

We specified two issues raising the questions, respectively, whether or not the circumstances surrounding the appellant’s making of his brother’s signature on the car order (Specification 1, Additional Charge III) and credit application (Specification 2, Additional Charge III) indicated an intent to defraud, and whether or not the traffic court action alleged as a lawful order (Specification, Additional Charge II) was, in fact, an order at all. Meanwhile, the U.S. Court of Military Appeals decided United States v. Hopwood, 30 M.J. 146 (C.M.A.1990), and appellate defense counsel then assigned as an additional error that the false signing of a credit application is not forgery. In light of Hopwood, the additional assignment of error has merit.

We next consider the question of intent to defraud, now solely with reference to Specification 1 of Additional Charge III. In the usual case, a name is an indicium of one’s identity. Thus, when a fictitious name is assumed for innocent purposes, forgery is not committed by signing the assumed name as one’s own, because, although the name is fictitious, the fictitious name, once assumed, has become an indicium of the signer’s true identity. By contrast, says paragraph 48c(3) of the Manual:

Likewise, a forgery may be committed by a person signing that person’s own name to an instrument. For example, when a check payable to the order of a certain person comes into the hands of another of the same name, forgery is committed if, knowing the check to be another’s, that person indorses it with that person’s own name intending to defraud.

Even though the names are the same, the forgery in such a case rests upon a misrepresentation of identity, since names alone are not infallible indicia of identity. The signing of a fictitious name by one who has not assumed that name so [833]*833as to associate it with his identity is also a misrepresentation of identity and is also, therefore, a forgery if done with intent to defraud. See generally 36 Am.Jur.2d, Forgery, § 11.

In this case, the appellant initially misrepresented his identity when he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. While he could assume his brother’s name, and apparently did so, he could not, thereby or otherwise, assume his brother’s identity. The result of his serving in the U.S. Marine Corps under his brother’s name, thus, produced a third, composite identity having his brother’s pre-enlistment characteristics and his own post-enlistment characteristics. Such identity did not, of course, correspond with any real person and was, therefore, a fictitious identity, yet it was that fictitious identity, not the genuine identity of either the appellant or his brother, which the signature made by the appellant on the car order signified; hence, the signature was, indeed, falsely made. See Hall v. United States, 372 F.2d 603 (8th Cir.1967), cert. denied 387 U.S. 923, 87 S.Ct. 2040, 18 L.Ed.2d 979 (1967), reh’g denied 389 U.S. 891, 88 S.Ct. 22, 19 L.Ed.2d 206 (1967). Moreover, we think that the misrepresentation concerned a material fact, because we do not believe that the automobile dealer would have sold the appellant a car if he had known the true situation, i.e., that the appellant had fraudulently enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, using his brother’s name, because he had a conviction in Texas for unlawfully carrying a weapon.

We turn next to Additional Charge II and its Specification. Sergeant Major Oakes, the noncommissioned officer whose “order” was allegedly disobeyed, was sitting as the camp traffic court judge at the time he rendered the “traffic court action” which is the subject of the charge and specification. After examining and taking judicial notice of the pertinent regulations accompanying or cited in the briefs of counsel, we believe that the “traffic court action” was not an order but merely an adjudication with respect to the appellant’s base driving privileges. Such adjudication nullified his base driving privileges but did not, ex proprio vigore, prohibit him from driving on the base.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
31 M.J. 830, 1990 CMR LEXIS 963, 1990 WL 180666, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-victorian-usnmcmilrev-1990.