Beal Bank, SSB v. Almand and Associates

• Decision Date: 01 March 2001
• Docket Number: No. SC93384.,SC93384.
• Citation: 780 So.2d 45
• Parties: BEAL BANK, SSB, Petitioner, v. ALMAND AND ASSOCIATES, etc., et al., Respondents.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

780 So.2d 45

BEAL BANK, SSB, Petitioner, v. ALMAND AND ASSOCIATES, etc., et al., Respondents.

No. SC93384.

Supreme Court of Florida.

March 1, 2001.

Raymond Ehrlich, Scott D. Makar and Alan M. Weiss of Holland & Knight LLP, Jacksonville, FL, for Petitioner.

William G. Cooper and Tracy K. Arthur of Cooper, Ridge & Beale, P.A., Jacksonville, FL, for Respondents.

PARIENTE, J.

We have for review the decision of the Fifth District Court of Appeal in Beal Bank, SSB v. Almand & Associates, 710 So.2d 608 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998), certifying two questions as ones of great public importance.¹ We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const. The certified questions arise from the central issue in this case: whether bank accounts titled in the name of both spouses were held as tenancies by the entireties and, therefore, not subject to execution by a creditor of only one of the spouses. We rephrase the certified questions as follows to more closely reflect our analysis in this case:

I. In an action by the creditor of one spouse seeking to garnish a joint bank account titled in the name of both spouses, if the unities required to establish ownership as a tenancy by the entireties exist, should a presumption arise that shifts the burden to the creditor to prove that the subject account was not held as a tenancy by the entireties?

II. In an action by the creditor of one spouse seeking to garnish a bank account jointly titled in the name of both spouses, if the unities required to establish ownership as a tenancy by the entireties exist, but the signature card expressly states that the account is owned as a joint tenancy with right of survivorship, does that statement alone constitute an express disclaimer that the account is not held as a tenancy by the entireties?

III. In an action by the creditor of one spouse seeking to garnish a bank account jointly titled in the name of both spouses, if the unities required to establish ownership as a tenancy by the entireties exist, but the signature card expressly disclaims the tenancy by the entireties form of ownership, may the debtor resort to extrinsic evidence to prove that a tenancy by the entireties was intended if the debtor establishes that the financial institution did not offer a tenancy by the entireties form of account ownership?

For the reasons discussed in this opinion, we answer questions one and three in the affirmative and question two in the negative.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Petitioner Beal Bank obtained judgments against respondents, Amos F. Almand, Jr. (Almand, Jr.), and his son, Amos F. Almand, III (Almand, III), based on obligations that arose in connection with the Almands' businesses. Among other attempts to collect on these judgments, Beal Bank, as creditor, sought to garnish several bank accounts held by the Almands and their wives. It is undisputed that the Almands' wives were neither parties to the judgments nor personally liable for the obligations. The subject bank accounts that we discuss were held in three banks:² multiple accounts in Compass Bank, one account in SouthTrust Bank, and one account in Barnett Bank.

With regard to the accounts held in Compass Bank that the Almands jointly owned, the signature cards³ list the account owners as follows: (1) "Amos F. Almand III, Sue C. Almand"; (2) "Amos F. Almand or Sue C. Almand"; (3) "Almand, Doris W. or Almand, Amos"; and (4) "Amos F. Almand, Jr. and Doris J. Almand."⁴ None of these signature cards specify a particular form of joint ownership such as "tenants in common," "joint tenancy with right of survivorship," or "tenancy by the entireties."

As for the account held in SouthTrust Bank, the signature card signed by Almand, Jr. lists the "account legal title" as owned by "Amos F. Almand, Jr. or Doris J. Almand, JT TEN." According to the signature card, the depositors own the account "as joint tenants with right of survivorship, unless another manner of ownership is specifically set forth in connection with the account legal title on this card."

The signature card for the Barnett Bank account specifies that the account is owned by "Amos F. Almand Jr. or Doris J. Almand Jt. Tenants with Rights of Survivorship." According to the signature card, persons signing the card "acknowledge(s) receipt of and agree(s) to the Rules and Regulations of the Bank for the account... not limited to ... Barnett Bank's Welcome Brochure." The multi-page Welcome Brochure provides that it "contains the rules and regulations governing" the Barnett Bank account. Paragraph 16 of the Welcome Brochure is entitled "Ownership of Account and Transfer of Ownership," and states:

16. Ownership of Account and Transfer of Ownership: If the account is designated a JOINT account, or if the names of two or more owners are joined by the word "or" or "and" on the signature card or in the title of the account, the Customer agrees that all sums now or hereafter deposited in the account are and shall be joint property owned by the Customer and any co-owners of the account as joint tenants with the right of survivorship and not as tenants in common or as tenants by the entireties.... Even if the Bank at the Customer's request titles the Customer's account as "Tenants by the Entireties" or receives oral or written notice that the Customer intends to treat the funds as being held as such, the Customer agrees that as between the Customer and the Bank, the Bank may treat the account like any other joint account and subject to all the terms and provisions set forth above.

After the trial court issued writs of garnishment against the Compass Bank, SouthTrust Bank, and Barnett Bank accounts, the Almands and their wives filed motions to dissolve the writs,⁵ and the court held an evidentiary hearing on the motions. At the hearing, both father and son testified regarding their intent in opening the joint accounts held with their wives.

According to the son, Almand III, he and his wife Sue C. Almand had been married for over twenty-one years at the time of the hearing. Almand III testified that he and his wife were joint owners of the accounts, which belonged to them both as a whole, with each of them possessing the accounts equally. Either one could write checks on the account, as they both had "equal access" to it. Almand III stated that his intent in opening the accounts was:

[T]o open this account where the monies would belong to the two of us and that either party could sign for any or all of the monies. I still don't think I have a clear enough understanding of the difference between joint tenants, tenants with rights of survivorship, tenants without, or tenants by the entireties, to really know what I was asking for in legal terms, you know, but my intent was to have the monies belong to both parties and have equal access to that money.

The father, Almand, Jr., also testified regarding the accounts he held with his wife. At the time of the hearing, he and his wife Doris Almand had been married for almost 52 years. Almand, Jr. testified that none of the monies in any of the accounts had been derived from property owned solely in his name, at least during the two years preceding the hearing. He also testified that he and his wife opened each of the accounts with the intent that "everything that we put into the bank was ours;" that he and his wife both controlled their money; that they were both entitled to the funds; that they owned the property "together;" and that they both had the same interest in the funds. In addition, Almand, Jr. testified that they used the funds to pay marital expenses, but he admitted that when they opened the accounts, he had never heard of a "tenancy by the entirety account." After the evidentiary hearing, the trial court entered an order dissolving the writs of garnishment directed to all of these accounts.

II. THE FIFTH DISTRICT'S OPINION

In a split decision, the Fifth District reversed the trial court as to some accounts, but affirmed the trial court as to the remainder of the accounts and certified the questions for our review. See Beal Bank, 710 So.2d at 608, 617-18

. The decision includes a short per curiam majority opinion. See id. at 608. In addition, Judges Cobb and Harris both wrote opinions concurring in part and dissenting in part, and Judge Sharp concurred in result only with a separate opinion.

With regard to the accounts at issue here, the per curiam majority opinion held that the Compass Bank accounts were not subject to execution, but that the Barnett Bank and SouthTrust Bank accounts held in the names of Almand III and his wife were subject to execution. See id. The majority opinion did not explain the basis for this result, so we must derive the rationale from the separate opinions of the individual judges.

According to Judge Cobb's concurring in part, dissenting in part opinion, the Almands had not demonstrated that they held any of the bank accounts as tenancies by the entireties or that the accounts were exempt from the creditors of one of the spouses. See id. at 611. In addition to the wording of the actual bank documents, Judge Cobb focused on the husbands' testimony that in each marriage either spouse, acting alone and without the knowledge of the other, could withdraw the funds in any accounts for any purpose. Id. Judge Cobb further deemed it important that the Almands testified that they themselves did not know the legal significance of a tenancy by the entireties account at the time they created the accounts. See Beal Bank, 710 So.2d at 611

. Based on the Almands' testimony and their wives' failure to testify, Judge Cobb reasoned that "there was no evidence, much less clear and convincing evidence, that the various accounts were created with the intent of the parties that they were to be held as tenancies by the entireties." Id.

In contrast, Judge Harris concluded that the Almands held all of the accounts at issue as tenancies by the entireties and, therefore, the trial court...