Allen v. Gordon, AM-487
| Decision Date | 15 March 1983 |
| Docket Number | No. AM-487,AM-487 |
| Citation | 429 So.2d 369 |
| Parties | Robert G. ALLEN, Appellant, v. Abner W. GORDON, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
David L. Dees of Green, Dees & France, Pensacola, for appellant.
James R. Green of Levin, Warfield, Middlebrooks, Mabie, Thomas, Mayes & Mitchell, P.A., Pensacola, for appellee.
Appellant, Robert G. Allen, appeals the trial court's order denying his motion for directed verdict and motion for new trial in this conversion suit filed by his stepfather, appellee, Abner W. Gordon. We affirm.
Mr. Gordon, now age seventy-eight, married appellant's mother in 1938 when appellant was two years old. Mr. Gordon was a construction job superintendent who set aside funds regularly from his wages as well as outside business ventures including the purchase, operation and sale of the couple's Molino Florida farm holdings, to provide something for them to live on in their old age. In 1966, Mr. and Mrs. Gordon opened a passbook savings account in their names and in the name of appellant. The signature card for the account expressly stated that all three individuals were to hold ownership as joint tenants with right of survivorship. In 1974, the Gordons opened a certificate of deposit account in their names and in the name of appellant. The signature card for that account also expressly stated that all three individuals were to hold ownership as joint tenants with right of survivorship. After Mrs. Gordon's death in August, 1978, appellee and appellant signed a new signature card for the certificate of deposit account providing the same survivorship language. On the day the card was signed and without appellee's knowledge or consent, appellant transferred $10,000 from the passbook account to the certificate of deposit account and withdrew $11,644.62, the balance of the passbook account. On March 30, 1979, two days before appellee was to remarry, appellant withdrew the balance of the certificate of deposit account--$24,175.97, for his own use and again without informing his stepfather. Consequently, appellee sued appellant for conversion of those funds. The jury returned a verdict for appellee for the amount taken plus accrued interest totaling $45,535.58.
Appellant argues that, pursuant to the signature card, he was either a joint tenant with right of survivorship and therefore entitled to one-half of the funds in the accounts or, if the right of survivorship was not created the three family members were all tenants in common. He contends that, if the parties were tenants in common, the trial court erred in failing to grant his motion for directed verdict due to appellee's failure to join an indispensable party plaintiff, the estate of Mrs. Gordon. He also argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion for new trial...
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