Cormier v. Carty

• Decision Date: 04 October 1979
• Citation: 394 N.E.2d 1003,8 Mass.App.Ct. 401
• Parties: Pulcherie CORMIER v. Leona P. CARTY.
• Court: Appeals Court of Massachusetts

Page 1003

394 N.E.2d 1003

8 Mass.App.Ct. 401

Pulcherie CORMIER v. Leona P. CARTY.

Appeals Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

Argued April 23, 1979.

Decided Oct. 4, 1979.

Charles R. Desmarais, Cummaquid, for plaintiff.

David Entin, Fall River, for defendant.

Before GOODMAN, BROWN and GREANEY, JJ.

GOODMAN, Justice.

The plaintiff (Pulcherie) appeals from a judgment of a Probate Court which determined that three bonds of the Seattle National Bank in the joint names of the plaintiff and the defendant (Leona) were held subject to an oral trust "for the benefit of the plaintiff during the plaintiff's life . . . with the remainder payable to the defendant upon the death of the plaintiff." The judgment declares that these bonds represent "the monies originally in the Charlestown Savings Bank, Merchants Cooperative Bank, and Suffolk Franklin Savings Bank . . . subject to (that) oral trust. . . . " We affirm the judgment. The trial judge's findings of fact ¹ support the judgment, and the plaintiff points to nothing in the findings or the evidence before us which would lead us to conclude that the findings are clearly erroneous. See Mass.R.Civ.P. 52(a), 365 Mass. 816 (1974).

The judge found that the accounts in the Suffolk Franklin Savings Bank and the Merchants Cooperative Bank were established in 1971 from previous accounts in those banks in the joint names of Pulcherie and Graziella MacKinnon, Pulcherie's younger sister (Graziella). Pulcherie was then in her late seventies ² and lived together with Graziella until Graziella died in 1975. Graziella had worked throughout her life, and the judge found that she had deposited considerable amounts of money in those previous accounts. Leona is their grandniece; she lives in the State of Washington. Over the years, since the 1940's, Graziella made yearly visits to the State of Washington, where she stayed with Leona's family for periods of four to six weeks.

Transfers of the previous accounts into the 1971 accounts were made in September of that year at the respective banks by Graziella, Pulcherie and Leona, who came to Boston at Graziella's request. The judge found that "(a)t the time of the transfer into the names of the plaintiff and defendant, the plaintiff was present, and Graziella told the defendant that she was worried that if she predeceased the plaintiff that there would be no one to take care of her, and that she wanted defendant to take care of the plaintiff's needs for so long as she should live and after plaintiff was gone the money would belong to defendant. This the defendant promised Graziella she would do, and this met with the approval of the plaintiff who was present at the time." ³

The judge further found that the account in the Charlestown Savings Bank in the joint names of Pulcherie and Leona was established in January of 1974 with money taken from envelopes marked with Graziella's name contained in the Shawmut National Bank safe deposit box (see note 3, Supra'). The cash was then taken to the Charlestown Savings Bank, and there Pulcherie and Leona opened a joint account. This was done at Graziella's direction; she had suffered a slight stroke at this time. The judge could infer that the parties were actuated by the same motives and intentions were involved in the 1971 transaction. Malone v. Walsh, 315 Mass. 484, 490, 53 N.E.2d 126 (1944). Indeed, Leona testified that in 1975, when Graziella was terminally ill, Graziella "said to take care of Pulcherie . . . she asked me also to be sure that it was done."

In view of the circumstances surrounding the establishment of the 1971 and 1974 accounts, their form is not controlling as between Pulcherie and Leona. "(T) he mere form of the deposits does not settle the matter." Drain v. Brookline Sav. Bank, 327 Mass. 435, 440, 99 N.E.2d 160, 163 (1951). Cf. DePasqua v. Bergstedt, 355 Mass. 734, 247 N.E.2d 354 (1969). See also 1 Scott on Trusts § 24 (3d ed. 1967). Just what relationship was established depends on the intent with which it was created, and this is a question of fact. Blanchette v. Blanchette, 362 Mass. 518, 524, 287 N.E.2d 459 (1972). The plaintiff has demonstrated no inconsistency in the judge's conclusion that the parties contemplated a trust relationship. That Pulcherie's name was on the accounts as joint owner could indeed give her legal rights against the banks, but it did not preclude a finding on the evidence that the arrangement among Graziella, Pulcherie and Leona established a trust fund with Leona as trustee to control the fund (as set out in the judgment) "for the benefit of the plaintiff during the plaintiff's life, the funds thereof to be expended only for the reasonable and necessary benefit and care of the plaintiff as needed, during her lifetime, with the remainder payable to the defendant upon the death of the plaintiff." See Ide v. Pierce, 134 Mass. 260, 263 (1883); Greeley v. O'Connor, 294 Mass. 527, 533, 2 N.E.2d 471 (1936); MacLennan v. MacLennan, 311 Mass. 709, 714, 42 N.E.2d 838 (1942); Id., 316 Mass. 593, 55 N.E.2d 928 (1944); Blanchette v. Blanchette, 362 Mass. at 522, 287 N.E.2d 459. We see nothing that would compel the judge to accept the plaintiff's contention that an agency relation was established which contemplated that Pulcherie as principal could, during her lifetime, revoke the arrangement and assume control of the disposition of the accounts or appoint another in Leona's place. The judge could have found from the evidence, including the relationship of the parties and the age of Pulcherie, that no such temporary arrangement was contemplated. Cf. Bradford v. Eastman, 229 Mass. 499, 500, 118 N.E. 879 (1918) (joint account for convenience while the former sole owner was on a trip); Miles v. Caples, 362 Mass. 107, 114, 284 N.E.2d 231 (1972) (joint account...