In re Application of Lowe, 5722

• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Idaho
• Writing for the Court: GIVENS, J.
• Citation: 298 P. 940,50 Idaho 602
• Docket Number: 5722
• Decision Date: 30 April 1931
• Parties: In the Matter of the Application of VIOLA LOWE for a Writ of Habeas Corpus

298 P. 940

50 Idaho 602

In the Matter of the Application of VIOLA LOWE for a Writ of Habeas Corpus

No. 5722

Supreme Court of Idaho

April 30, 1931

CRIMINAL LAW-HABEAS CORPUS-FORGERY-INFORMATION, SUFFICIENCY OF.

1. Information may be sufficient to support judgment attacked by habeas corpus, though it might have been held insufficient otherwise.

2. Information charging forgery of order for issuance of warrant chargeable against funds of school district held sufficient (C. S., secs. 911, 913, 914, 8408).

3. Information charging forgery of order for issuance of warrant chargeable against school funds held sufficient, though designating school district as No. 39 instead of "Common School District No. 39" (C. S., secs. 911, 913, 914, 8408).

4. Where forged instrument is copied in haec verba in information, and purports on face to be valid, regular, subject to forgery, indicating party who would be defrauded, relationship of [50 Idaho 603] parties, whose names appear in instrument, and organizations thereby designated to transaction, no extraneous allegations are necessary.

APPLICATION of Viola Lowe for a Writ of Habeas Corpus. Writ quashed and petitioner remanded.

Writ quashed and the petitioner remanded.

Turner K. Hackman, for Petitioner.

As set out in subdivision (d) in the petition for the writ of habeas corpus, an examination of the complaint will show that the writing upon which the complaint is based does not purport to be drawn on behalf of any named incorporated school district in its corporate capacity, and for that reason it is void, a nudum pactum.

"'When the writing is invalid on its face, it cannot be the subject of forgery, because it has no legal tendency to effect a fraud.'" (State v. Evans, 15 Mont. 539, 48 Am. St. 701, 39 P. 850, 28 L. R. A. 127.)

No forgery where instrument is void. (Arnold v. Cost, 3 Gill & J. (Md.) 219, 22 Am. Dec. 302, 315; State v. Cordray, 200 Mo. 29, 9 Ann. Cas. 1110, 98 S.W. 1; Roode v. State, 5 Neb. 174, 25 Am. Rep. 475, 477.)

The instrument, though falsely made, has no legal validity, as shown upon its face. To be valid it must be shown upon its face that it purports to be drawn under the corporate name of a school district, to wit: "Common School District No. in County, State of Idaho," or other corporate name, as set forth in Sess. Laws 1921, chap. 215, p. 429.

The information fails to specify any name upon its face, or even attempt to allege any name upon its face, to be a forgery; therefore fails to state a cause of action. (State v. Burtenshaw, 25 Idaho 607, 138 P. 1105; Hobbs v. State, 75 Ala. 1; State v. Pierce, 8 Iowa 231; Roode v. State, supra; Anderson v. State, 20 Tex. App. 595.)

Fred J. Babcock, Attorney General, Maurice H. Greene and Z. Reed Millar, Assistant Attorneys General, for Respondent.

An information is sufficient to support a judgment attacked by habeas corpus even though it would have been held...