Chase's Estate, In re
| Decision Date | 15 January 1960 |
| Docket Number | No. 8729,8729 |
| Parties | In re ESTATE of Curtis Maxon CHASE, Deceased. Maxon CHASE and Mabel Matheson, Guardian ad litem for Curtis Greer Chase, minor, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Janice REID, Defendant-Respondent. |
| Court | Idaho Supreme Court |
J. Ward Arney, Pat W. Arney, W. B. McFarland, McFarland & McFarland, Coeur d'Alene, for appellants.
H. S. Sanderson, James T. Knudson, McNaughton & Sanderson, Coeur d'Alene, Brown & Thayer, Spokane, Wash., for respondent.
Curtis Maxon Chase died February 8, 1954. He left a last will and testament bearing date August 31, 1951, in which he bequeathed 'Ten Thousand ($10,000.00) Dollars saving account and any accruals thereto on deposit in the First Federal Savings and Loan, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, in the joint name of myself and my daughter, Janice Reid,' to his two grandsons, appellants Maxon Chase and Curtis Greer Chase, to be used for purposes of their education or, in the alternative, to be given to them upon their attaining the age of 25 years. He devised and bequeathed the rest, residue and remainder of his estate to his daughter Janice Reid and to appellants in equal shares.
At the time testator executed his will there were two deposits, each of $5,000, in First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Coeur d'Alene, in two separate joint tenancy right of survivorship savings accounts, Nos. 9167 and 10485, in the names of testator and respondent; also, at said time there was, and continued to be, on deposit in Coeur d'Alene Branch of The Idaho First National Bank a joint tenancy right of survivorship checking account in the names of testator and respondnent, which totaled $13,547.63 at the time of testator's death; also, at said time testator had saving account No. 11-15196 in the National Bank, which on April 28, 1952, he caused to be converted to a joint tenancy right of survivorship saving account, in the names of testator and respondent.
Testator, February 26, 1953, withdrew from said savings and loan association the two savings accounts Nos. 9167 and 10485, and accruals thereto, totaling $10,510.11, and deposited the same in the joint tenancy survivorship saving account No. 11-15196 in said National Bank, which account at the time of testator's death totaled $17,828.87.
Testator, January 28, 1954, opened a joint account but without right of survivorship in Rathdrum State Bank, Rathdrum, Idaho, in the names of himself and respondent.
During the period commencing in May, 1942, and ending in December, 1944, testator purchased ten Series E, United States Savings Bonds, totaling $1,025 in matured value, made payable to himself or his daughter, respondent.
The last will and testament of Curtis Maxon Chase, deceased, was duly admitted to probate during March, 1954, in the probate court of Kootenai County and respondent was appointed and qualified as executrix. Some three months thereafter respondent by her application filed in the probate court sought to discharge J. Ward Arney as the attorney representing her as the executrix, and the estate. Mr. Arney resisted and the court denied and dismissed the application.
Difficulties also arose between respondent and Mr. Arney, her attorney, because of respondent's insistence that the bank accounts and United States savings bonds in fact belonged to her individually and should not be included as assets of decedent's estate. Issues were joined and a hearing had in the probate court relating to the ownership of said accounts and bonds. The court, pursuant to its order settling the ownership of such property, found and ordered that the accounts Nos. 9167 and 10485 amounting to $10,510.11 transferred by testator from First Federal Savings and Loan Association to the joint tenancy survivorship saving account No. 11-15196 in Coeur d'Alene Branch of The Idaho First National Bank, together with all accruals on the transferred accounts, constituted the fund bequeathed, by decedent's will impressed with an equitable trust, for the use and benefit of his grandsons, appellants. The court also found that testator in establishing saving account No. 11-15196 did so, not intending to make a gift to his daughter, respondent, but for purposes of his own convenience and that such account should be distributed in accordance with the terms of decedent's will.
The probate court also found and ordered that all other checking and saving accounts, standing jointly in the names of Curtis Maxon Chase and respondent at the time of decedent's death belonged to and were assets of the estate and that no part thereof was respondent's property; also, that the United States saving bonds inscribed in the names of Curtis Maxon Chase and respondent should be treated as belonging to respondent, the co-owner, on the death of decedent, subject only to inheritance taxes to be paid by the co-owner.
Both parties appealed from portions of said order upon questions of both law and fact, to the district court where the court tried the issues de novo without a jury.
The district court after a hearing, found that the joint account in Rathdrum State Bank, by the terms of the joint signature card relating to the account, did not give rise to the right of survivorship in respondent as a co-owner, and that such account remained an asset of the estate governed by the terms of decedent's will; also found that the joint accounts amounting to $10,510.11, transferred by Mr. Chase from First Federal Savings and Loan Association to the saving account in Coeur d'Alene Branch of The Idaho First National Bank, although transferred to a joint bank account with right of survivorship by and between him and his daughter, respondent, were impressed with an equitable testamentary trust and that respondent held such funds as trustee for appellants, grandsons of decedent, under the terms of decedent's will; and further found that the United States saving bonds and the remaining bank accounts were the properties of respondent individually, as surviving joint tenant.
Appellants appealed from the portions of the judgment adjudging respondent individually to be the owner of the United States saving bonds; also of the remaining bank accounts in Coeur d'Alene Branch of The Idaho First National Bank, being the amount remaining in the saving account No. 11-15196 after setting aside therefrom the amount of the $10,510.11 and accumulated interest, impressed with a testamentary trust for the use and benefit of appellants, decedent's grandsons; and the checking account.
Appellants' assignments of error read as follows:
'The judgment erroneously awarded the daughter the checking account and the residue of the savings account, all in The Idaho First National Bank, and all of the bonds, and specifically:
'1. Held the 'right of survivorship' clause on a signature card to be conclusive; and
Assignment No. 1 is without merit because the trial court's action in allowing the introduction of evidence bearing upon Mr. Chase's intent, sufficiently refutes appellants' contention that the trial court deemed the right of survivorship clause of the bank signature cards to be conclusive. Assignment No. 2 is without merit because the trial court correctly so ruled, as hereinafter shown.
Assignments Nos. 3 and 4 relate to questions of fact and No. 5 to one of mixed fact and law. Those assignments question the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the trial court's findings and judgment based thereon, that respondent individually, and not decedent's estate, succeeded to the ownership of said bank accounts and bonds upon the death of testator.
I.C. § 55-104 reads in part as follows:
'Every interest created in favor of several persons in their own right is an interest in common, unless acquired by them in partnership, for partnership purposes, or unless declared in its creation to be a joint interest, or unless acquired as community property.'
I.C. § 26-1014, relating to the creation of joint bank accounts with right of survivorship, reads as follows:
This Court on three occasions has considered so-called joint tenancy survivorship bank accounts. The first case, Gray v. Gray, 78 Idaho 439, 304 P.2d 650, involved such an account of a father and his minor daughter. The father, at his death, left surviving his daughter who claimed the account as a gift to her by her father of his separate property, whereas, the father's surviving widow claimed the account as community property. This Court held that under the evidence adduced the account was the father's separate...
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