Opinion ID: 2049434
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: defendant's cases distinguished.

Text: Defendant would have us instead rely on the dissent in Stout and on Gilbert v United States, 370 US 650; 82 S Ct 1399; 8 L Ed 2d 750 (1962) on which that dissent relied. Justice Harlan, writing for the 4-3 majority, applied the common law meaning to the Federal statute on the basis there was no legislative interpretation. The common-law interpretation did not include misrepresentation of agency. We believe that the Michigan statute unlike the Federal statute does not require resort to the common law for interpretation and hence prefer to follow Stout and not Gilbert. [3] Defendant also relies on People v Brown, 178 Mich 155; 144 NW 477 (1913). The facts in this case are altogether different. Defendant made out a personal check to himself and signed it, using an Anglican name he commonly went by rather than his own long foreign name. It was accepted by a friend of many years who knew and recognized him and who also knew his right name and that he commonly used the name he employed on the check. There were, of course, no funds in his account at the bank.