Lewis

This petition for a writ of prohibition challenges the indictment of petitioner (defendant) for forgery. We are asked to determine whether the definition of forgery in Penal Code section 470 extends to the fabrication of a signature on a letter of endorsement of a candidate for public office. We answer “no” and will grant the relief sought.

Section 470 is derived from the common law and its reach is thereby limited. Under the controlling case law a letter bearing a false signature urging people to vote for a candidate for public office is not an instrument which could “prejudice, damage, or defraud” any person, as those terms are used in section 470. (See, e.g., People v. Wong Sam (1897) 117 Cal. 29 [ 48 P. 972 ].) Unless the consequential harm of the fabrication is a loss, damage, or prejudice of a legal right, generally a pecuniary or property right, there is no harm of the kind to which the statute is directed and hence no forgery. The attempted persuasion of another' to vote does not implicate such a right.

This conclusion does not imply condonation of the alleged conduct. Rather, as the Supreme Court once noted, in overturning a different forgery conviction; “…