Mariquita J Caparas v The Queen

Judgment Cited authorities (3) Cited in Precedent Map Related
Judgment Date21 June 1968
Year1968
Judgement NumberCACC29/1968
CourtCourt of Appeal (Hong Kong)
CACC000029/1968 MARIQUITA J CAPARAS v. THE QUEEN

CACC000029/1968

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF HONG KONG

(Appellate Jurisdiction)

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.29 OF 1968

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BETWEEN
MARIQUITA J. CAPARAS Appellant

AND
THE QUEEN Respondent

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Coram: Briggs, J. and Mills-Owens, J.

Date of Judgment: 21 June 1968

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JUDGMENT

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1. On January 10th, 1968 the appellant was convicted of being in possession of a large quantity of forged bank notes contrary to section 10(1) of the Forgery Ordinance. She was sentenced to three years' imprisonment. She appealed against conviction and sentence. We dismissed her appeal against conviction and sentence on June 5, 1968 for the reasons contained in this judgment.

2. The facts are simple. The appellant arrived in Hong Kong from the Phillipines by air on December 14, 1967. She was in possession of a through ticket to Saigon but it appears that she wished to take advantage of an arrangement under which transit passengers may remain in Hong Kong for a limited number of days. Because of this her luggage was searched. She had two suitcases, a handbag and a vanity case. In a tray in the vanity case there were found some underclothes and cosmetics. The tray as lifted and underneath was found to be 1,968 forged blank American Express Money Orders.

3. Various grounds of appeal were filed but we consider that it is only necessary to deal with the first ground in this judgment. This reads as follows:-

"that the trial judge was wrong in law and on the evidence in finding that the money orders, the subject of the charge, were bank notes as defined in section 2 of the Forgery Ordinance."

The documents in question are American Express Money Orders and state on their face that "the American Express Company agrees to pay at 65 Broadway New York the sum of ........". The amount is not filled in but there is a statement to the effect that it must not exceed U.S. $100.

4. The name of the issuing agent and the person to whose order payment is to be made are likewise in blank. Upon the face of each Money Order appear the words "Know your endorser cash only if recourse is available". A similar condition is expressed on the back. In the court below evidence was given that American Express Money Orders were very easily negotiable.

5. In the court below the point was taken that these Money Orders did not fall within the definition of 'bank note' contained in Section 2 of the Forgery Ordinance. The trial Judge held that they did fall within that definition in that they were 'notes of a company carrying on the business of banking' and that therefore they were 'bank notes' within the definition.

6. This point was again argued before us on appeal.

7. Mr. Bernacchi's main argument centred on the definition of 'bank note' contained in Section 2 of the Forgery Ordinance. He contended that 'bank note' bore a particular significance in the common law, and that the definition contained in the Ordinance should not therefore be read as extending the provisions of Section 10(1) beyond any document which was not, at common law, a 'bank note'. Bank notes at common law, he argued, had the meaning given by Lord Mansfield in Miller v. Race(1) where he said:-

"That these notes are not, like bills of exchange, mere securities, or documents for debts, nor are so esteemed; but are treated as money in the ordinary course and transactions of business by the general consent of mankind; and on payment of them, whenever a receipt is required, the receipts are always given as for money, not as for securities or notes."

8. Lord Mansfield, it may be noted, was there considering a note of the Bank of England; however, in Lichfield Union v. Greene(2) Baron Bramwell applied Lord Mansfield's remarks to the notes of banks other than the Bank of England.

9. It is apparent that early legislation extended the law of forgery as respects bank notes to notes issued by the Bank of Ireland and to...

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