Territory of Montana v. Poulier
Territory of Montana v. Poulier
Opinion of the Court
The statute of this Territory, defining forgery and the acts that constitute it, declares that such crime may be committed, by falsely uttering and publishing, as well as by falsely making and forging. These are separate means by which the crime can be committed; and when each of the acts is connected with the same instrument, an indictment, charging the same in separate counts, the first by falsely making and forging, the second by falsely uttering and publishing, is not subject to demurrer for duplicity; for only one offense is charged, to wit, the crime of forging as to one and the same instrument. Where the statute declares an act unlawful, when perpetrated in any one or all of several modes, an indictment may charge the act,
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- TERRITORY OF MONTANA v. JOSEPH POULIER
- Cited By
- 8 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Criminal Pleading — Forgery—Indictment.—An indictment for forgery contained two counts. The first charged the defendants with falsely making and forging an instrument, the second with falsely uttering and publishing an instrument. The instruments as described were the same as to words, figures, and dates, but the indictment did not charge that they were one aad the same. A demurrer to the indictment was sustained, on the ground that it charged two separate offenses. Held, that an indictment for the crime of forgery, as defined in section 96, division 4, Compiled Statutes, may set forth the different means by which, in connection with the same instrument, the offense was committed, in separate counts, if these refer directly to the same instrument; hut that the demurrer in this case was properly sustained, as the court could not infer from the mere identity of words, figures, and dates, that the same instrument was referred to in the two counts.