[ G.R. No. 928. October 18, 1902 ] 1 Phil. 428
[ G.R. No. 928. October 18, 1902 ]
THE UNITED STATES, COMPLAINANT AND APPELLEE, VS. FRANCISCO BUENAVENTURA, DEFENDANT AND APPELLANT. D E C I S I O N
ARELLANO, C.J.:
A check drawn in favor of P. San Buenaventura was indorsed by Francisco San Buenaventura, he signing the indorsement “P. San Buenaventura.” The check was for $25, gold.
The accused pleads guilty to having signed and collected the check in the name of P. San Buenaventura, saying, to use his own language, “my name is Francisco San Buenaventura, and as on several occasions I have collected my own checks which, in my presence and for the payment of my fees, have been issued to me by my American employers, they confusing the ‘F’ of my name with ‘P,’ as they usually do, and as the rest of my surname is exactly the same as that expressed in the check I took and indorsed the check upon which this prosecution is based as my own, and in consequence made the collection in good faith.”
An unbroken line of decisions interpreting section 1 of article 300 of the Penal Code in force holds that when no attempt has been made to imitate, counterfeit, or simulate a signature the crime of falsification is not committed, but possibly that of estafa. The decisions of this court have followed this line of cases. (United States vs. Paraiso and United States vs. Roque, cases Nos. 91 and 895.)
In this case the Government cites three decisions of the supreme court of Spain, dated the 24th of November, 1882, the 24th of January, 1883, and the 31st of January, 1884, in which the doctrine is laid down that the person who signs a receipt on a bill of exchange with the name of another, he not being the lawful owner thereof, and signs the name of the true holder of the bill, is guilty of the falsification of a mercantile document, because of having falsely caused it to appear on the face of the document that some one who did not really sign it was a party thereto; that is to say, in the present case Francisco Buenaventura made it appear by the indorsement that the real P. San Buenaventura had indorsed the check, the fact being that he did not do so.
It is difficult to imagine how a case could arise in which one person’s signature is substituted for another, whether simulated or not, without it being made to appear by the person making the substitution that some person who did not actually sign had done so. Neither is it easy to understand how a case could arise which would fall within paragraph 1 of article 300 of the Code without at the same time falling within paragraph 2 of the same article. Upon this theory, in all those decisions in which the court held that there was no falsification because there was no attempt to imitate, counterfeit, or simulate the true signature, the court omitted to consider, as in the three judgments cited, that the person accepting the signature had feigned the participation of a person who did not actually participate.
It may, perhaps, be attempted to rest the distinction upon the fact that in the last three, judgments and some others which might be cited the documents referred to are commercial, whereas in the former judgments, as well as in some others rendered in recent years which might also be cited, the questions concern private documents. But the fact remains that this differentiation must fall to the ground upon an examination of another judgment rendered July 1, 1890. This was a case of a clerk in a commercial firm who had presented a check to a bank for collection, having signed his principal’s name and indorsed the check “Received,” signed by himself with the name of another person. The check was not paid on presentation by reason of the fact that the signature appended thereto was not recognized as authentic.
The criminal branch of the court of Havana held that these facts constituted the crime of frustrated estafa, but the Government took the case up on cassation for infraction of law, assigning as error the failure to hold that these facts constituted the crime of falsification, urging that this offense consists not only in counterfeiting the handwriting or signature of another but also in simulating the participation in an act of a person who did not so participate, or in perverting the truth in a narration of facts. Nevertheless the supreme court held that the court of Havana had not erred in its determination as to the crime resulting from the facts upon which the appeal was based, holding that the facts found by the judgment, to the effect that the defendant signed a check and signed the receipt with another’s name but without counterfeiting the handwriting, signature, or rubric of thje supposed signer, the case did not constitute any one of the falsifications covered by article 310 of the Penal Code of Cuba and Porto Rico (art. 300 of the Philippine Penal Code), but constituted an integral part of the deceit which, together with the intent to defraud, constituted the essence of the crime of estafa; that orders for payment known as mercantile documents in the Code of Commerce in force acquire their validity from the signature of the person who issues them, and when the supposititious signature has been written in such a way that the difference between the true and supposititious signature is observed as soon as the check is presented for payment, and the difference is such as to avoid all possibility of error on the part of the person called upon to pay the check, it simply shows anjntention on the part of the criminal to commit the crime of estafa.
Therefore the judgment below, by which the defendant was condemned to eight years and one day of prision mayor and to pay a fine of 5,000 pesetas, is reversed, and the defendant is acquitted of the charge of falsification. The crime committed is that of estafa.
Cooper, Willard, Smith, Ladd, and Mapa, JJ., concur.