State v. Bryant
Superior Court of New Hampshire
Indictment. It was alleged that the respondent, on the tenth day of June, in the year 1842, falsely and fraudulently altered a certain accountable receipt for property, purporting to be signed by one Jonathan Ramsey, which said accountable receipt, so falsely and fraudulently altered, was originally as follows, that is to say: “ Received of John S. Bryant, deputy sheriff, two steers, one heifer, one horse, one hog, ten sheep, all valued at fifty dollar’s, property that is…
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Indictment. It was alleged that the respondent, on the tenth day of June, in the year 1842, falsely and fraudulently altered a certain accountable receipt for property, purporting to be signed by one Jonathan Ramsey, which said accountable receipt, so falsely and fraudulently altered, was originally as follows, that is to say: “ Received of John S. Bryant, deputy sheriff, two steers, one heifer, one horse, one hog, ten sheep, all valued at fifty dollar’s, property that is attached by said Bryant on writs of D. Sloan, E. & Emerson v. D. 0. Ramsey, all of which I agree to safely keep and return…
1Opinion of the CourtWoods, J.
The first count in the indictment has defects so palpable, that, after pointing them out, neither authority nor argument will be required to show them to be material and fatal.
The alleged alteration set forth in that count, is the insertion into the original receipt of the words, “ and M. Harriman,” without, in any manner, showing the position occupied by those words in the receipt, or in any manner pointing out their effect and operation upon the instrument, or upon its legal import. In order that the alteration should vitiate the receipt, or render the act of alteration a criminal act, the…
2Cases cited3 opinions
- Commonwealth v. HoughtonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1811
- People v. KingsleyNew York Supreme Court · 1824
- Ralston v. StrongSupreme Court of Vermont · 1814