166 N.E. 529 | Ill. | 1929
The grand jury of Cook county returned an indictment against plaintiff in error, Albert R. Schneider, in two counts purporting to charge him with the crime of forgery. At the June term, 1927, of the criminal court of Cook county he entered his plea of guilty to that indictment. *631 This plea was accepted by the court, but before sentence was imposed, and at the July term, 1927, of the court, he asked leave of the court to withdraw his plea of guilty and to enter a motion to quash the indictment and each count thereof. The court refused to grant leave to withdraw his plea of guilty. He then made a motion in arrest of judgment, which was overruled and he was sentenced to be imprisoned in the penitentiary for an indeterminate term for the crime of forgery. He brings the record here for review on error.
The only contention made in this court is that the indictment does not in either count charge the crime of forgery and is insufficient to support the judgment of the court. The first count of the indictment charges that plaintiff in error did "feloniously, fraudulently and falsely make, forge and counterfeit a certain deed and evidence of title, the same being an instrument of writing, which said false, forged and counterfeited deed and evidence of title is in the words and figures following, to-wit, [the deed alleged to have been forged is here set out in full,] with the intent thereby then and there to prejudice, damage and defraud John H. Stout." The second count charges that plaintiff in error "did feloniously, fraudulently and falsely pass as true and genuine a certain false, forged and counterfeited deed and evidence of title, the same being an instrument in writing, which said false, forged and counterfeit deed and evidence of title so passed as true and genuine as aforesaid is in the words and figures following, to-wit, [the deed alleged to have been forged is here set out in full,] the said Albert R. Schneider then and there well knowing the same to be false, forged and counterfeited, with the intent then and there to prejudice, damage and defraud John H. Stout." The deed set out in each of the two counts as having been forged is one and the same deed. It is a quit-claim deed in the usual and ordinary statutory form in use in this State, in which John H. Stout, the person alleged in both counts *632 of the indictment as the one intended to be defrauded, is named as the grantor and Joseph Milton is alleged as the grantee. It purports to convey certain real estate in Cook county and to be signed with the name, "John H. Stout." It has attached to it a purported certificate of acknowledgment in the usual form, purported to be signed and sealed before a notary public of Cook county, certifying that the grantor, John H. Stout, a widower, is personally known to be the same person whose name is subscribed to the foregoing instrument, and appeared before the notary in person and acknowledged that he signed, sealed and delivered the instrument as his free and voluntary act for the uses and purposes therein set forth, including the release and waiver of the right of homestead. The notary public purports to certify that the purported certificate of acknowledgment was signed and sealed by him May 5, 1926. The purported deed also concludes with the release and waiver clause of all rights under and by virtue of the homestead and exemption laws of this State, and the consideration named in the deed is "ten dollars and other good and valuable considerations." On this deed there was a certificate of the recorder of Cook county that it was recorded in that county.
The contention of plaintiff in error is that the indictment does not charge the crime of forgery because it does not allege the forgery of an instrument apparently capable of defrauding the person (the alleged grantor in the deed) whom it is alleged the plaintiff in error intended thereby to defraud. InGoodman v. People,
In Klawanski v. People,
We regard the decisions of this court in the two cases above cited as controlling our decision in this case. The quit-claim deed in question creates no obligation on the part of the grantor, who is alleged as the one intended to be defrauded. It does not even purport by any language in it to state or recite that the grantor has any interest in the lands therein described. If Stout, the purported grantor in the deed named in the indictment, had no title to, interest in or claim to the real estate which the forged deed purported to convey, it was not possible for that deed in anywise to damage or defraud him. Since the person whom plaintiff in error is alleged to have intended to defraud by the forged deed is the same person whose name appears therein and is signed thereto as grantor, it is necessary to allege in the indictment such extrinsic facts as will show on the face thereof that the grantor had or claimed to have some right, title or interest in the property which the forged *634 instrument purported to convey, before the indictment can be held to be sufficient to charge the crime of forgery or any other crime against plaintiff in error.
By a plea of guilty a defendant confesses only his guilt as charged in the indictment, and on such plea a defendant cannot be sentenced for a crime other than that charged in the indictment, and if the indictment charges no criminal offense a defendant cannot lawfully be sentenced under such an indictment for any crime. (Klawanski v. People, supra; People
v. Brown,
The case of Wishard v. State,
The judgment of the criminal court is reversed.
Judgment reversed. *635