Barnes v. Chandler

• Decision Date: 10 December 1931
• Citation: 178 N.E. 735,277 Mass. 395
• Parties: BARNES v. CHANDLER et al. MARTIN v. SAME.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

277 Mass. 395

178 N.E. 735

BARNES

v.CHANDLER et al.

MARTIN

v.SAME.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Middlesex.

Dec. 10, 1931.

Report and Reservation from Probate Court, Middlesex County; Arthur E. Beane, Special Judge.

Separate petitions by Edith Talbot Barnes and Miriam Talbot Martin to determine title of certain assets in the hands of Albert M. Chandler and others, executors of Eliza J. Talbot, deceased.

Decrees for petitioners.

E. B. Church, of Boston, for petitioners.

A. M. Chandler, of Boston, for respondents.

SANDERSON, J.

These are two petitions to determine the title to certain assets in the hands of the respondents as executors under the will of Eliza J. Talbot, a woman of limited financial resources, who died testate on July 25, 1929. Her sister-in-law, who died in Arizona in 1922, had for some years prior to that time made contributions toward the support of the testatrix imtended as gifts. After the death of this benefactress her two daughters, Mrs. Martin and Mrs. Barnes, respectively petitioners herein, remitted $25 a month to the testatrix as gifts and these payments continued until her death.

On November 10, 1928, the testatrix opened two accounts in the savings department of the First National Bank of Malden, one in the name of ‘Eliza, J. Talbot or Edith Talbot Barnes joint account payable to either or the survivor,’ and the other in the name of ‘Eliza J. Talbot or Miriam Talbot Martin joint account payable to either or the survivor.’ The amounts of the original deposits with the additions thereto are set forth in the agreed facts. The totals, which may be somewhat increased by additions of interest or dividends, are much less than the payments made by the two petitioners. The signatures of both petitioners were deposited with this bank, but the bank books were at all times until the death of the testatrix in her possession and control. No withdrawals of either principal or interest were made. Under the rules of the bank either party named on the bank book could withdraw money on presentation of the book. Shares of stock of the Malden Co-operative Bank were purchased by the testatrix on various dates from September 1, 1927, to August 18, 1928. These were all either ‘matured’ or ‘paid up’ shares each being of a par value of $200. Seven were issued in the names of ‘Eliza J. Talbot and/or Miriam T. Martin’ and seven in the names of ‘Eliza J. Talbot and/or Edith T. Barnes.’ Their total value was $2,800. The signatures of the two petitioners were furnished to the Malden Co-operative Bank and under its rules either party named in a certificate could obtain its value without the assent of the other party. The certificates were continuously in the possession of the testatrix, who received and used the dividends. During the period covered by these transactions Mrs. Talbot corresponded with the petitioners but did not see them.

In letters from the petitioner Mrs. Barnes, written after the death of her aunt, to one of the executors she stated that the money contributed by her and her sister was to provide greater comfort for their aunt in her declining years; that her aunt wrote both nieces that she was depositing the money as she received it, first in the name of one and then in the name of the other, and that unless she exhausted her personal means they would receive with interest what they had sent her month by month; and that they were sent slips to sign so that the bank might have their signatures. The petitioner Mrs. Martin wrote to one of the executors in February, 1930, that her aunt advised her of the accounts in the First National Bank of Malden and the Malden Co-operative Bank when they were first opened; that her aunt instead of spending the money for her personal comfort, as she and her sister requested her to do, opened the accounts advising both nieces of her action and stating that unless her own personal funds became exhausted prior to her death she intended leaving the joint accounts intact for them; that approximately all the money sent from them was deposited in the Malden banks with the intention on the part of the aunt that it become the property of her nieces upon her demise. It is not argued, nor does it anywhere appear, that so far as the rights of the parties are concerned the savings bank deposits stand on any different footing from the cooperative shares and no distinction will be made between them here. McKenna v. McKenna, 260 Mass. 481, 157 N. E. 517, was decided upon the ground that the evidence justified a finding that title to a savings bank deposit passed by way of gift to a person named as joint owner. By a series of decisions beginning with Chippendale v. North Adams Savings Bank, 222 Mass. 499, 111 N. E. 371, the court has held that in some cases, where the facts would not justify a finding of an executed gift, the survivor of two persons named as joint depositors became owner of the deposit by virtue of a contract with the bank in which the funds were deposited. See Perry v. Leveroni, 252 Mass. 390, 147 N. E. 826;Brodrick v. O'Connor, 271 Mass. 240, 246, 171 N. E. 479;Kentfield v. Shelburne Falls Savings Bank, 273 Mass. 548, 174 N. E. 229;Holyoke National Bank v. Bailey, 273 Mass. 551, 174 N. E. 230;Rockefeller v. Davenport (Mass.) 177 N. E. 856. In Perry v. Leveroni, 252 Mass. 390, at page 393, 147 N. E. 826, 827, the court said: ‘As to the deposit in the County Savings Bank, the agreed facts show that it was made in the names of the...