1284 ARTICLE 27

An. Code, 1924, sec. 557. 1912, sec. 500. 1904, sec. 442. 1888, sec. 290. 1785, ch. 80, sec. 4.

1852, ch. 176, sec. 2.

653. All indictments under the preceding section may be amended at
any time before verdict so as to present properly the merits of the charge;
and the court may permit such amendment after the jury is sworn, and
proceed with the trial, or the court may, in its discretion, allow a juror
to be withdrawn and continue the case.

Indictments—Forgery and False Pretenses.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 558. 1912, sec. 501. 1904, sec. 443. 1888, sec. 291. 1862, ch. 80.

654. It shall be sufficient in any indictment for forging, uttering, dis-
posing of, putting off or passing any instrument whatsoever, or for ob-
taining any property by false pretenses, to allege that the defendant did
the act with the intent to defraud, without alleging the intent of the defen-
dant to be to defraud any particular person; and on the trial of any of
the offenses in this section mentioned it shall not be necessary to prove an
intent on the part of the defendant to defraud any particular person, but
it shall be sufficient to prove that the defendant did the act charged with
an intent to defraud. In any indictment for forging, altering, putting off,
passing, stealing, embezzling, destroying or for obtaining by false pre-
tenses any instrument, it shall be sufficient to describe such instrument
by any name or designation by which the same may be usually known, or
by the purport thereof, without setting out a copy or fac-simile thereof, or
otherwise describing the same. In all other cases, whenever it shall be
necessary to make any averment in any indictment as to any instrument,
whether the same consists wholly or in part of writing, print or figures, it
shall be sufficient to describe such instrument by any name or designation
by which the same may be usually known or by the purport thereof, with-
out setting out any copy or fac-simile of the whole or any part thereof.

This section only relates to manner of alleging the facts and bringing them upon
record, but does not dispense with necessity of their averment in indictment; instru-
ment (mentioned in this section) should be sufficiently identified in the indictment;
indictment held defective. State v. Blizzard, 70 Md. 387; Armacost v. State, 133 Md. 292.

Indictment for forgery need not name or describe person intended to be defrauded.
Marino v. State, 171 Md. 104.

Allegation that the intent was to defraud K., the cashier of the Hagerstown bank,
being surplusage, was proper to be disregarded; hence allowing it to be stricken out was
an amendment in form merely. Hawthorne v. State, 56 Md. 535.

This section held not to cure indictment under sec. 548 which was substantially defec-
tive because it did not allege that the obligations or certificates were "granted by or
under the authority of the United States." Kearney v. State, 48 Md. 25.

Cited but not construed in Summons v. State, 156 Md. 384, 392; Simmons v. State,
165 Md. 161, 165.

As to counterfeiting and forgery, see sec. 45, et seq.

As to false pretenses, see sec. 150, et seq., and notes.

See notes to sec. 651.

Indictments—Robbery, Larceny, Embezzlement, False Pretenses
Relating to Money.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 559. 1912, sec. 502. 1904, sec. 444. 1898, ch. 120, sec. 291A.

655. In every indictment for robbery, larceny or embezzlement of any
kind, when the offense shall relate to money, and in every indictment for
obtaining money by false pretenses or for receiving stolen money, or for
any kind of fraudulent conversion of money, and in every other indict-
ment, whenever it shall become necessary to make any averment as to
money, it shall be sufficient to describe said money as so much current