Case Name: LAMB v. STATE
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1912-06-28
Citations: 148 S.W. 1088
Docket Number: 
Parties: LAMB v. STATE.
Judges: 
Reporter: South Western Reporter
Volume: 148
Pages: 1088–1088

Head Matter:
LAMB v. STATE.
(Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.
June 28, 1912.)
Forgery (§ 28 ) — Indictment— Sufficiency.
A check calling for “$50.75 Fifty Cents and 75/100 Dollars” is so uncertain as to be insufficient to support an indictment for forgery, in the absence of innueñdo averments alleging its true meaning.
[Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Forgery, Cent. Dig. §§ 66-76; Dec. Dig. § 28. ]
Appeal from District Court, Cherokee County.
Lon Lamb was convicted of forgery, and he appeals.
Reversed, and prosecution dismissed.
C. E. Lane, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
For other cases see same topic and section NUMBER in Dec. Dig. & Am. Dig. Key No. Series & Rep’r Indexes

Opinion:
HARPER, J.
Appellant was indicted for forgery and passing a forged instrument, there being two counts in the indictment. The alleged forged instrument is as follows:
"Rusk, Texas, April 1, 1911. No. 17. "The First National Bank of Rusk, Texas.
"Pay to the
"Order of Been Richert $50.75 .
"Fifty Cents and 75/100 Dollars.
"Knox Overton."
The indictment contains no explanatory averments, alleging for what amount the check was intended. The statute reads that any person is guilty of forgery who, with intent to defraud, shall make any false instrument in writing, purporting to be the act of another, in such manner that the false instrument would create a pecuniary obligation, and we have puzzled our brain trying to decipher what amount this cheek would create a legal liability for, and in the absence of any explanation we are not able to tell. Mr. Bishop lays down the rule that, if a writing is so incomplete as to have an apparent uncertainty, the indictment must allege such extrinsic facts as will enable the court to see, if genuine, its meaning. 2 Bish. Cr. Law, 545. This instrument is so uncertain on its face, in the absence of innuendo averments alleging its true meaning, that the indictment should have been quashed, and the court erred in not so doing.
The judgment is reversed, and the prosecution dismissed.