Cutts v. Najdrowski

• Decision Date: 28 April 1938
• Docket Number: No. 218.,218.
• Citation: 198 A. 885,123 N.J.Eq. 481
• Parties: CUTTS et al. v. NAJDROWSKI et al.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

198 A. 885

123 N.J.Eq. 481

CUTTS et al.

v. NAJDROWSKI et al.

No. 218.

Court of Errors and Appeals of New Jersey.

April 28, 1938.

Syllabus by the Court.

The validity of a trust of choses in action created by a settlement or other transaction inter vivos is determined by the law of the place where the transaction takes place.

Appeal from Court of Chancery.

Proceeding by Lydia Cutts, administratrix of the estate of Leon Najdrowski, deceased, and others against Joseph Najdrowski, also known as Joseph Nider, and others, to require that money deposited by Joseph Najdrowski be held by him in trust for the complainants. From a decree in favor of the complainants, 121 N.J.Eq. 546, 191 A. 867, the defendants appeal.

Decree reversed.

George E. Cutley, of Jersey City, for appellants Joseph and Augusta Najdrowski. Rospond & Rospond and Felix Rospond, all of Newark, for appellees Lydia Cutts and others.

BODINE, Justice.

Leon Najdrowski, a resident of Jersey City, had a bank account, for many years before his death, in the Williamsburg Savings Bank in New York City. On July 16, 1932, he caused the account entry—it then amounting to $6,155.96—to be changed so as to read "Leon Najdrowski, Int. for Joseph Najdrowski." Leon died on February 27, 1936, and thereafter Joseph closed the account and, after paying the funeral expenses, deposited the remainder, the sum of $5,500, in a joint account in his name and that of his wife, Augusta, in the Fifth Ward Savings Bank of Jersey City. The complainant Cutts, a half sister of the deceased, Leon, being appointed administratrix of Leon's estate, together with the other next of kin of the deceased, commenced this proceeding in the Court of Chancery to have it declared that the money so deposited by Joseph Najdrowski in the Jersey City bank was held by him in trust for them.

The Court of Chancery, in supposed reliance upon the case of Swetland v. Swetland, 105 N.J.Eq. 608, 149 A. 50, affirmed 107 N.J.Eq. 504, 153 A. 907, erroneously held that the transfer of the New York bank account was controlled by the law of this state and was invalid since it failed to comply with the statute of wills of this state. In the Swetland Case anything which may have been said respecting the law controlling the creation of a trust inter vivos in money or securities was not necessary to the decision and must, therefore, be disregarded if contrary to the generally accepted principles of law.

A gift of money is governed by the law of the place where the gift is made. See article by Professor J. H. Beale, 45 Harvard Law Review 969.

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