| Article 10: The
ordinary penalty for fraud which is committed in the bills of exchange
and the rest of the documentos de giro of which mention has been made,
will be a fine equal to three percent of the quantity drawn, without prejudice
to the restoration which must be made of the valve of the stamp defrauded;
nothing that this fine will not exceed 3,000 reales even in the cases in
which the three percent of the sum to which reference is made would produce
a greater quantity.
Article 11: Every
bill of exchange, warrant to order, promissory note, or letter of credit
for a fixed amount, which is drawn, negotiated or circulated after the
publication of this law, without having the stamp which is established,
will be illegal and will not have any force, if it is not cleansed (juzgada)
of its defect (vicio), uniting to it another corresponding stamp and proving
the fine imposed in the preceding article to have been satisfied.
Article 12: The
holders of the illegal documents for the circulation of money will be obliged
to satisfy the pecuniary penalty which corresponds to the fraud perpetrated,
reserving to them their right against the drawer or the endorser.
Article 13: The
endorser of these documents for the circulation of money, who put them
in circulation without the requisite ordered by the present law, will be
considered accessories of the fraud, which the drawer has committed by
dispatching them, and of which they are made accomplices by receiving them
or making use of them.
Article 14: The
judges who admit in any judgment or Judicial procedure in which they interpose
their authority, documents of this kind which are not found extended with
the requisites ordered, and the scriveners who certify in these same cases,
or before whom there are presented the proper documents for their protest
in the partition of inheritances, in proceedings
of creditors or in any other manner, and who confirm the actuations which
emanate from the indicated decisions, will pay a fine of 1,100 reales de
vellon. [46]
“Article 15. The
special judges to be employed in all the fraud made in the stamp
or tax on bills of exchange and other documents of this class, will be
the Sub-delegates of Revenues. In the towns where there are none,
the local judge will take cognizance, making report to the respective Sub-delegate,
and placing at his disposition the part of the sentences (i.e., fine) which
is adjudged to the National Treasury.
Article 16: But
if, in addition to the fraud, there exists the crime of falsification,
the offender with the matter of the crime will be placed at the disposition
of the ordinary jurisdiction for that which it adjudges in accord with
the laws.
Article 17: The
privileges of all classes, for whatever privileged persons there may be,
are abolished for the recognition and punishment of these crimes
according to that (which is) prescribed in Article 127 of the penal law
of May 3, 1830.
Article 18: The
judgments concerning crimes of the tax imposed on the documents for the
circulation of money, will be most summary and will be determined openly,
whatever the examination (reesnocimiento) of the criminal may be, which
has preceded it.
Article 19: The
amount of the fines which are imposed, will be divided by halves between
the National Treasury and the apprehenders of the fraud, provided that
they may not be the judges of the cause; because being such, all will be
applied to the National Treasury.
Article 20:
There are repealed all the dispositions which are opposed to the tenor
of that (which is) ordered in the present law, which is made extensive
to all the Spanish Dominions. [47] |
