Wash. Court of Appeals published opinion — D2 51946-1-II Published Opinion.pdf

Citation: Wash. Court of Appeals published opinion — D2 51946-1-II Published Opinion.pdf
Jurisdiction: Washington (state)
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191 Wn. App. at 792; see RCW 9A.04.060 (“The provisions of the common law relating to the

commission of crime and the punishment thereof . . . shall supplement all penal statutes of this

state”).

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No. 51946-1-II

“Under the common law, an instrument is something that, if genuine, would have legal

effect or be the foundation of legal liability.” Ring, 191 Wn. App. at 792. Therefore, a “written

instrument” as used in RCW 9A.60.020 is defined as a writing that has legal efficacy. Id. Under

this definition, “a writing can support a forgery charge only if the writing would have legal

efficacy if genuine.” Id.

3. Legal Efficacy of Bank Account Applications

Smith argues that the evidence does not establish that the bank account applications at

issue constituted “written instruments” under the forgery statute because there was no evidence

that the applications had any legal effect or that they could be foundations for legal liability. We

disagree.

The legal efficacy rule was part of Washington forgery law under former chapter 9.44

RCW (1909) from 1909 through 1975, when the current forgery statute was enacted. Ring, 191

Wn. App. at 792. The legislature intended to continue the legal efficacy rule under the new

forgery statute. Id. The former forgery statute listed categories of documents that satisfied the

legal efficacy requirement, including

“any writing or instrument by which any claim, privilege, right, obligation or
authority, or any right or title to property, real or personal, is or purports to be, or
upon the happening of some future event may be, evidenced, created,
acknowledged, transferred, increased, diminished, encumbered, defeated,
discharged or affected.”