Eppinger

An information was filed in the superior court of the city and county of San Francisco *38 against the defendant, charging him with “ forgery," committed as follows: “The said W. L. Eppinger, on the thirteenth day of November, a. d. eighteen hundred and ninety-three, at the said city- and county of San Francisco, state of California, with intent to defraud, did make and forge a certain fictitious instrument in writing for the payment of money, purporting to be signed by M. Howell & Co., and which said instrument in writing was and is in the words and figures following, to wit:

Whereas, in truth and in fact there was no such individual as M. Howell & Co. in existence, as he, the said W. L. Eppinger, then and there well knew, and'that the said instrument in writing was fictitious; and upon the trial thereof he was convicted and sentenced to the state prison for the term of fourteen years.

Section 476 of the Penal Code of this state makes special provision for the offense of making or passing a fictitious instrument in writing, and a distinction is thus made between the forgery of a check upon an existing person and the making and passing of a fictitious instrument purporting to be…