Ryan

The defendant was convicted on twenty-six counts of an indictment, of which nine counts charged the commission of forgery and seventeen charged the commission of the crime of forgery of a fictitious name. There was no demurrer to the complaint, and the points on appeal relate to the case as made by the evidence.

Appellant’s first point is that the checks described in counts V, XI, XVI, XXIII, XXVII and XXXII were not forgeries or forgeries of a fictitious name within the meaning of the statute. Count V may be taken as representing this group. The defendant was accused therein of the crime of “forgery of a fictitious name, a felony.” The document containing the alleged forgery reads as follows:

It was alleged, among other things, that the said check “was then and there false and fictitious to the then knowledge of the said William Francis Ryan, and there was not then and there or at all any such person or individual as M. P. Layton, and the said William Francis Ryan then and there well knowing that he had no authority so to sign the name of said fictitious person to and upon said check.”

Appellant claims that because the check was payable to the order of cash and was his own…