SUPREME COURT OF THE CANAL ZONE. Apr. Term,

alterations" reads as follows: "In order that an alteration constitute forgery, it is essential that itbe material * the addition of a figure in the margin, the body remaining unchanged, * the legal effect of the instrument not being varied, is immaterial." Under Note 45 of the same page there appears a case in which the alteration of a cipher in the margin of a check was considered as a case of forgery, the cipher altered expressing in numbers the same amount as that written in the body of the check. But the foregoing case is different from the one under consideration, because the cipher changed corresponded to the amount written in the body of the check, and itself formed part of the body; but in this case, the marginal cipher does not correspond with the body of the check, and does not bear any apparent relation to the body of the document.
If the holder of the document, by changing figures that do not vary the legal value of the instrument, or by some other fraudulent contrivance, succeeded in deceiving the paymaster and in obtaining a larger amount of money than that called for in the body of the document, he has committed the crime defined in one or the other of the before-mentioned sections cited in the opinion of Justice Collins.
Reversed and remanded.

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