Source: http://www.chanrobles.com/usa/us_supremecourt/370/650/case.php
Timestamp: 2019-12-13 22:28:44
Document Index: 520956424

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 7206', '§ 1001', '§ 495', '§ 7206', '§ 495', '§ 1001', '§ 495', '§ 495', '§ 495', '§ 495', '§ 24', '§ 495', '§ 495', '§ 1001', '§ 2314', '§ 2314', '§ 2314', '§ 1622']

GILBERT V. UNITED STATES, 370 U. S. 650 (1962) - US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
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Petitioner, an accountant whose business included acting for others in federal income tax matters, was charged in a thirty-five-count indictment with violations of 26 U.S.C. § 7206(2), 18 U.S.C. § 1001, and 18 U.S.C. § 495, in that he had allegedly falsified his clients' returns (§ 7206(2)), forged their endorsements on government tax refund checks (§ 495), and, by endorsing such checks, had made false statements as to a matter within the jurisdiction of a government agency (§ 1001). The jury convicted on thirty-one counts and acquitted on four others. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
R. Milo Gilbert, Trustee [Footnote 2] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
On these premises, the Court of Appeals, concluding that the evidence was sufficient to permit the jury to find that petitioner had endorsed the checks without authority (a conclusion which, for present purposes, we accept), held that one who endorses a government check by signing the name of the payee and then his own, as agent, when in fact he has no such authority, is guilty of forgery under § 495. We granted certiorari to consider the correctness of that view of the statute. 368 U.S. 816. While not mentioned in the petition for certiorari, though discussed in the briefs on the merits, the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, after the Court of Appeals' decision in the present case, held that "forgery" under § 495 does not embrace a purported, but misrepresented, agency endorsement (hereafter called simply an "agency endorsement"). Selvidge v. United States, 290 F.2d 894. For reasons given in this opinion we agree with the Tenth Circuit. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
We cannot so easily dispose of the case. For, accepting the premise that the jury could have found that petitioner did not purport to act in a representative capacity when he endorsed the checks, it was surely also permissible for the jury to find that petitioner had purported to make an agency endorsement in both instances, and we are thus left to speculate on which theory its verdict in fact rested. Indeed the record before us seems to indicate that this aspect of the case was tried at least primarily, on an agency endorsement theory. The trial judge's instructions to the jury on this phase of the case were, at best, opaque. Having refused to instruct the jury that an agency endorsement was not forgery under § 495, [Footnote 4] he at chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In this posture of things, the Government's proposal that we bypass decision of the question that brought the case here must be rejected. If an agency endorsement chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
2 Car. & K. at 412, 175 Eng.Rep. at 170 (Nisi Prius, Book 6). This, to be sure, was some twenty-four years after the 1823 predecessor of § 495 came on the books. The Government says that this English decision should be regarded as but an ill-advised and temporary departure from the earlier common law which was "soon recognized" and remedied by the passage of the Forgery Act of 1861, 24 & 25 Vict., c. 98, § 24, defining forgery to include chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
(Emphasis in original). Coke, [Footnote 8] Hawkins, [Footnote 9] and chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Blackstone, [Footnote 10] who are also cited by the Government, are no more persuasive towards the Government's view. The more inclusive definition of forgery contained in the English statutes, supra, p. 370 U. S. 655 and note 7, proves not that Regina v. White was mistaken in its view of the common law, but only that a broader definition was deemed desirable by Parliament. And, finally, the Regina v. White view of forgery at common law was early accepted in a federal case as representing the English common law. In re Extradition of Tully, 20 F.8d 2. The same view of forgery has since been followed in most of the state and federal courts in this country. See, e.g., People v. Bendit, 111 Cal. 274, 276-280, 43 P. 901, 902; Pasadena Investment Co. v. Peerless Casualty Co., 132 Cal.App.2d 328, 331, 282 P.2d 124, 125; State v. Lamb, 198 N.C. 423, 425-426, 152 S.E. 154, 155-156; Dexter Horton Nat. Bank of Seattle v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 149 Wash. 343, 346-351, 270 P. 799, 800-802; Greathouse v. United States, 170 F.2d 512, 514; Marteney v. United States, 216 F.2d 760, 763-764.
The foregoing considerations combine to lead us to the conclusion that "forge" in § 495 should not be taken to include an agency endorsment. So the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has held in Selvidge v. United States, supra, the only case in the lower federal courts chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
squarely dealing with the point, [Footnote 11] and we perceive no sound reason for rejecting its conclusion. We find no more persuasive than did the Court of Appeals in Selvidge (290 F.2d 896 and note 2) the scattered federal cases relied on by the Government in support of the opposite view. [Footnote 12] Nor are we impressed with the argument that "forge" in § 495 should be given a broader scope than its common law meaning because contained in a statute aimed at protecting the Government against fraud. [Footnote 13] Other federal statutes are ample enough to protect the Government against fraud and false statements. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 1001-1026. Still further, it is significant that cases construing "forge" under other federal statutes have generally drawn a distinction between false or fraudulent statements and spurious or fictitious makings. See, e.g., Greathouse v. United States, supra (construing 18 U.S.C. § 2314); Wright v. United States, 172 F.2d 310, 311-312 (construing 18 U.S.C. § 2314); Marteney v. United States, supra (construing 18 U.S.C. § 2314); United States v. Carabasi, 292 F.2d 362, 364 (construing 7 U.S.C. § 1622(h)). Where the "falsity lies in the representation of facts, not in the genuineness of execution," it is not forgery. Marteney v. United States, supra, 216 F.2d 763-764. Of course, Congress could chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Ex parte Hibbs, 26 F.4d 1; Yeager v. United States, 59 App.D.C 11, 32 F.2d 402; United States v. Tommasello, 64 F.Supp. 467; Quick Service Box Co. v. St. Paul Mercury Indemnity Co., 95 F.2d 15.