Coddington v. Bevan

• Citation: 315 Ill. 92,145 N.E. 801
• Decision Date: 16 December 1924
• Docket Number: No. 16161.,16161.
• Parties: CODDINGTON et al. v. BEVAN et al.
• Court: Supreme Court of Illinois

315 Ill. 92

145 N.E. 801

CODDINGTON et al.

v.BEVAN et al.

No. 16161.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Dec. 16, 1924.

Error to Appellate Court, Third District, on Appeal from Circuit Court, Logan County; Frank Lindley, Judge.

Suit by Ethel C. Coddington and others against Frank S. Bevan, executor of the estate of Louis Coddington, deceased, and others. Decree of dismissal affirmed by Appellate Court, and plaintiffs bring certiorari.

Reversed and remanded, with directions.Harold F. Trapp, guardian ad litem, of Lincoln, for plaintiffs in error.

Scholes & Pratt, of Peoria, and Miller & Miller, of Lincoln, for defendants in error.

FARMER, J.

This case comes to this court for review upon a writ of certiorari to the Appellate Court for the Third District which court affirmed a decree of the circuit court of Logan county dismissing for want of equity the bill of complaint filed by plaintiffs in error. The material facts developed upon the hearing were not contradicted and were as follows:

Charlotte A. Coddington, who was most generally called Lottie Coddington, was the wife of Louis Coddington. Cleveland (or Cleve) Coddington was their only child. About 1915 Mrs. Coddington received from her father's estate the sum of $10,000 which amount she deposited March 2, 1917, in the People's Bank of Atlanta, Ill., taking therefor a demand certificate, payable to herself, with interest thereon at 3 per cent., if held for six months or one year. At some time after receiving her share of her father's estate, no definite date having been established, plaintiffs in error contend Mrs. Coddington called her husband and their only child to her room for the purpose of discussing with them the disposition of her money. She requested that after her death her husband have the use of her money during his life, and after his death it was to be the property of her son. This arrangement was consented to by the father and son. Mrs. Coddington died intestate on March 21, 1918, leaving surviving her husband and son. The son was of age, and no administration was had upon her estate.

On May 9, 1918, not equite two months after the mother's death, the father and son went to the People's Bank of Atlanta, and presented the mother's demand certificate for $10,000, upon which each of them indorsed his name. Through the same bank the father and son each made separate application and subscribed for $5,000 worth of United States Third Liberty Loan bonds, in denomination of $1,000 each, to be registered in their respective individual names. The principal of the demand certificate for $10,000 was used in the purchase of these bonds. The accrued interest on the demand certificate, in amount of $355.83, was paid by the bank to Louis Coddington and placed to his credit. The father and son also on the same date presented and indorsed a second certificate previously issued by the same bank to Mrs. Coddington in amount of $400, and this sum was also placed to the father's credit in the bank. Both amounts were afterward checked out and used by the father. The registered bonds purchased were later received by the bank, and $5,000 worth were delivered to each the father and son. The bonds registered in the father's name were found in his safety deposit box upon his death.

Later, in 1919, the father bought and had registered in his own name two Fourth Liberty Loan bonds, in amount of $1,000 each. Soon after his wife's death Louis Coddington made his home with his son, except during the winter periods, which he spent in California. While he was in California during the winter of 1919-20 he received word of the son's illness, and while en route to Cleve's home the son died, about February 13, 1920. He left surviving him his wife, a small son and daughter, and a third child was born after Cleve's demise, all of whom are plaintiffs in error here. His wife was appointed administratrix of Cleve's estate, and in her inventory of assets the $5,000 worth of bonds registered in the name of Louis Coddington were not included. Cleve's father made a will November 2, 1920, which was about nine months after his son's death, wherein it was provided, ‘Whatever United States Liberty bonds I own at my death I bequeath to my nephews' (naming them), and on October 3, 1921, he died. His will was probated, and the $5,000 worth of Third Liberty Loan bonds were inventoried as a part of the assets of his estate.

It is admitted by the parties that at the death of Lottie Coddington intestate, in the latter part of March, 1918, she owned the demand certificate for $10,000, with accrued interest thereon. She also owned the additional $400 certificate and whatever accrued interest may have been due. The $10,000 certificate, with its accrued interest, and the additional certificate of $400, made an approximate money estate of $10,800 on May 9, 1918, which was the date Louis Coddington and Cleve Coddington met at the People's Bank and arranged the division of money from Mrs. Coddington's estate. In the absence of any agreement between the father and son, under the statute, the latter would have been entitled to two-thirds of his mother's money, or approximately $7,200, and his father entitled to one-third, or about $3,600. What was done at the bank resulted in the father obtaining for his own property the accrued interest on the mother's $10,000 certificate and the principal of the second $400 certificate. Hence it will be seen the father received as a result of the meeting with his son at the bank on that day the value of approximately $5,800, or more than half of Mrs. Coddington's money, while the son received $5,000 worth of Third Liberty Loan bonds, which is less than one-half of his mother's estate. The banker who handled the transaction gave no testimony as to any conversation or agreement between the father and son at the bank on the day the mother's money was...