Opinion by
The only theory upon which this case can proceed is that the law has provided for an official certificate or return of a road supervisor, which may be received by the county court as legal evidence of the facts certified to, and has further prescribed a penalty for forging or counterfeiting the same, and for uttering such certificate so forged or counterfeited with intent to defraud. The indictment is drawn under section 1808, Hill’s Code of Oregon which provides that “If any person shall, with intent to injure or defraud any one, falsely make, alter, forge, or counterfeit any public record whatever, or any certificate, return, or attestation, of any clerk, notary public, or other public officer, in relation to any matter wherein such certificate, return, or attestation may be received as legal evidence, or any note, certificate, or other evidence of debt issued by any officer of this state, or any county, town, or other municipal or public corporation therein, authorized to issue the same, or any contract, charter, letters patent, deed, lease, bill of sale, will, testament, bond, writing obligatory, undertaking, letter of attorney, policy of insurance, bill of lading, bill of exchange, promissory note, evidence of debt, or any acceptance of a bill of exchange, indorsement, or assignment of a promissory note, or any warrant, order, or check, or money, or other property, or any acquittance or discharge for money or other property, or
By this act the county court is made the auditing board, and the funds set apart to the different road districts are disbursed under its supervision. The supervisor whose duty it is to direct and supervise the expenditures, is required to certify to the county court his accounts for labor performed or material furnished. These certified accounts constitute the vouchers upon which the court acts, and upon which it bases its orders for drawing warrants against the particular fund. The orders must require the warrants to be drawn in favor of the person or persons
Now, the account and certificate relied upon consists of an instrument denominated “Time check for the month of December, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, district number six, ” underneath which are written the words, “Approved: John Conley, supervisor.” The so-called “time check” indicates with reasonable definiteness and certainty that Miles Stanley served time, or performed two hundred and sixty hours work with team and driver, in the month of December, eighteen hundrd and ninety-four-, for district number six, the value being specified at ninety-one dollars. This is an intelligible and sufficiently definite account of labor-done and performed. It requires no stretch of the imagination to understand from it that Miles Stanley did and performed, with team and driver, within or for district number six, two hundred and sixty hours’ labor during the month of December, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, for which he should receive ninety-one dollars; so that the account itself is sufficient. But, has it been sufficiently certified to the county court to entitle it to be considered evidence of the fact that Miles Stanley performed labor as shown by the account? The word “approved,” written beneath the account, with the signature of the supervisor subscribed in his official capacity, is, as we think, a sufficient official certification of the account. It identifies the account as that of the supervisor, and is equivalent to making it “O K” or “correct,” which is usually recognized as a certification in ordinary business affairs. The fact that what purports to be an order drawn upon Multnomah County intervenes be
The indictment, however, is deemed faulty and insufficient. It is alleged, among other things, that it was the duty of the supervisor “to issue certificates to persons performing labor and furnishing material,” etc., and “that the certificate so issued by him, the said John Conley, as supervisor aforesaid, entitled the holder thereof to receive from said Multnomah County the amount of money named in the certificate,” etc., and the charging part of the indictment proceeds upon the idea that this certificate is of such a nature that, if genuine, it would create a demand against the county. We have seen that such is not the case. The instrument set forth by copy, instead of “purporting to be a certificate entitling the holder thereof to the payment of the compensation therein named by Multnomah County, for work and labor performed upon a county road in road district number six in said Multnomah County and State of Oregon,” and “purporting to entitle one Miles Stanley to the payment of ninety-one dollars by the said Multnomah County and State of Oregon,” simply purports to be an account with one Miles Stanley for two hundred and sixty hours work and labor with man and team, done and
Affirmed.