Also known as: forgers
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An individual who fabricates or alters a writing or signature with intent to deceive. The act produces a forged instrument that is void from inception and transfers no interest to the forger or subsequent grantees.
Freya Freeman forges the signature of the record owner on a deed conveying Blackacre to Frank Fisher. Fisher records the deed and later sells the parcel to Fairfield Bank, a purchaser without notice. The bank takes nothing because the forged deed conveyed no title from the outset.
Forrest Falconer creates forged investment certificates and mails them to out-of-state victims to obtain funds. The scheme uses the postal system to distribute the false instruments. Prosecutors charge Falconer with mail fraud based on the forged documents.
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Fatima Flores is convicted of forgery and sentenced to death under a state statute that imposes capital punishment for that offense. She challenges the sentence as cruel and unusual. The Court examines whether the punishment is disproportionate to the crime of forgery.
Floyd Franklin forges a government check and negotiates it through Clearfield Trust. The United States as drawee seeks recovery after discovering the forgery. The bank asserts a defense based on the government's delay in giving notice of the forgery.
A forged deed is void from the beginning and passes no title, so even a later bona fide purchaser receives nothing. A deed procured by fraud is merely voidable, allowing a subsequent purchaser without notice to obtain good title.
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The forger acquires nothing and can convey nothing. Recording acts may protect a subsequent bona fide purchaser only in limited jurisdictions depending on the type of statute and chain-of-title rules.
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Modern authority under the UCC permits ratification of a forgery in some commercial settings, though older common-law rules often barred ratification because the act was not done on behalf of the victim.
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Payment on a forged indorsement constitutes conversion, and the true owner may recover from the bank that paid a person not entitled to enforce the instrument.
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…The consequence was, that the law was changed; and when secondary punishments were substituted for the penalty of death, a forger had no better chance of an acquittal than any other criminal. Thus it is that the power which juries possess of refusing to put the law in force has, in the words of Lord John Russell,…