Carl

In a suit against Theodore Wiesendanger the plaintiff, Marcel Carl, was awarded a verdict for three hundred dollars actual and seven hundred dollars punitive damages for slander. Wiesendanger appealed from the judgment entered upon the verdict. After the death of the appellant, upon suggestion, the administrator of his estate was substituted.

The complaint was in two counts, and in it the plaintiff in substance alleged the defendant had to two different persons, then the employers of the plaintiff, on the same day but at different times accused the plaintiff of having forged the defendant’s name as the indorser of a certain check. The appellant makes six specifications of error, which may best be discussed in what appears to be their logical order. They are closely related and all refer to the allegation that the defendant said: “Mr. Carl is a forger. He has forged my name to a check and I have a lithographed copy of the check in my office.”

[1] In criminal prosecutions for forgery, the intent to defraud is not only an essential element of the crime of forgery, but is an essential element to every indictment for forgery. (People v. Turner, 113 Cal. 278 , [ 45 Pac. 331 ]; People…