Battles v. Millbury Sav. Bank

• Decision Date: 21 October 1924
• Parties: BATTLES v. MILLBURY SAVINGS BANK et al.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

250 Mass. 180

145 N.E. 55

BATTLES

v.MILLBURY SAVINGS BANK et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Worcester.

Oct. 21, 1924.

Exceptions from Superior Court, Worcester County; N. P. Brown, Judge.

Action of contract by Angeline Battles against the Millbury Savings Bank to recover deposit made in name of ‘Clara E. Sawyer or Angeline Battles,’ in which Marvin M. Taylor, executor of the will of Clara E. Sawyer, deceased, was made defendant. The jury found for plaintiff, and he executor brings exceptions. Exceptions sustained.

L. E. Stockwell, of Worcester, for plaintiff.

M. M. Taylor, of Worcester, for defendants.

PIERCE, J.

This is an action of contract to recover the amount of a deposit of $2,000, with accrued interest thereon, made in the defendant bank on the 11th day of October, 1920, in the name of Clara E. Sawyer or Angeline Battles. The defendant Marvin M. Taylor, executor of the will of Clara E. Sawyer, was duly made a party to the suit as an adverse claimant to the fund. The defendant Millbury Savings Bank is ready and willing to pay said fund to whomsoever the court shall decree it belongs.

The material and undisputed facts disclosed by the record are that the plaintiff, nearly 80 years old at the time of the trial in 1924, went to Millbury, Mass., every summer to visit her half-sister and the daughter of her half-sister, Mrs. Sawyer; that they were very good friends; that Mrs. Sawyer died April 19, 1921, aged about 65 years; that the plaintiff visited her half-sister and Mrs. Sawyer in 1920 from June until October, that she intended to have gone home the week before she did, but stayed over because Mrs. Sawyer wanted her to stay so that she (Mrs. Sawyer) could go to Worcester and see about depositing the money, and that she could not leave her mother alone; that Mrs. Sawyer went to Worcester one day and when she returned she had a conversation with the plaintiff and showed her a bank book; that the plaintiff did not take it in her hand, but Mrs. Sawyer held it so that the plaintiff saw it and saw that the book was ‘made out to our names and $2,000 and date.’ A savings bank book No. 16420, issued by the Millbury Savings Bank, showing a deposit of $2,000 on October 11, 1920, in the name of ‘Clara E. Sawyer or Angeline Battles,’ was identified by the plaintiff as the savings bank book shown her by Mrs. Sawyer, and it was admitted in evidence. The record discloses that on Mrs. Sawyer's return she said to the plaintiff ‘she had been in and deposited some money on joint account of herself and [Miss Battles]; that the plaintiff replied, ‘You will probably outlive me,’ and Mrs. Sawyer answered, ‘I am not sure. I don't know about that.’ In cross-examination the plaintiff, in reply to the question, ‘Wasn't something said which caused you to say, ‘You will probably outlive me’?' answered. ‘When she deposited the money she said she made a joint account of it.’ She further testified that she made the remark “You will probably live longer than I' * * * because [she] knew * * * [Mrs. Sawyer] had deposited [the money] in case she passed away before [the plaintiff] did'; that she understood it had been deposited in case Mrs. Sawyer passed away before she (the plaintiff) did. The witness testified, in answer to the question, ‘Didn't she say something to that effect?’ ‘That was all I said and all she said.’ To the question, ‘Didn't she say something to the effect that she had deposited it so that you would have it if she passed away?’ the plaintiff answered: ‘That was all. When she came in with the book she showed it to me and she said she had done that, that is what passed between us.’ To the question, ‘Didn't she say something to the effect that she had done it so you would have the money if she passed away first?’ the plaintiff answered: ‘She didn't say anything, but I supposed she understood it.’ To the question, ‘You understood it?’ she answered, ‘Yes;’ and ‘Yes' to the question, ‘Then you made the remark ‘You will probably outlive me’?'

It further appeared that Mrs. Sawyer gave the plaintiff ‘A card to be signed,’ which was put in evidence; that the plaintiff signed it ‘Angeline Battles; residence, Plymouth;’ that there was no other writing on the card and that Mrs. Battles inferred Mrs. Sawyer took it to the bank; that Mrs. Sawyer did not give the book to the plaintiff; that the plaintiff never had the book; that the book always remained with Mrs. Sawyer; that the plaintiff never drew or tried to draw any money from the account at the bank. The plaintiff answered ‘Yes' to the question, ‘The money was her money?’ and ‘No’ to the question, ‘None of yours?'

At the close of the evidence the defendant requested the court to rule:

‘4. If Clara E. Sawyer intended to make a gift of the fund in question in the Milbury Savings Bank upon and in the event only of her death prior to the death of Angeline Battles, then as a matter of law, the gift, being testamentary in character, is in violation of the law of wills, and the plaintiff cannot recover the said sum.

‘5. If Clara E. Sawyer and Angeline Battles intended that the fund in question in the Millbury Savings Bank should be a gift to Angeline Battles dependent upon and in the event only of the death of Clara E. Sawyer prior to the death of Angeline Battles, then as a matter of law the gift, being...