Deal's Adm'r v. Merch.S' & Mech.S' Sav. Bank

• Decision Date: 16 January 1917
• Citation: 91 S.E. 135
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: DEAL'S ADM'R v. MERCHANTS' & MECHANICS' SAVINGS BANK et al.

91 S.E. 135

(120 Va. 297)

DEAL'S ADM'R

v.MERCHANTS' & MECHANICS' SAVINGS BANK et al.

Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.

Jan. 16, 1917.

Appeal from Circuit Court of City of Norfolk.

Suit by Deal's administrator against the Merchants' & Mechanics' Savings Bank and others.Judgment for defendants, and plaintiff appeals.Affirmed.

Frank L. Crocker and Winston Parrish, both of Portsmouth, for appellant.

N. T. Green and Baker & Eggleston, all of Norfolk, for appellees.

HARRISON, P.This suit was brought by the administrator of Martha S. Deal claiming a certain deposit, on savings account, in the Merchants' & Mechanics' Savings Bank of Norfolk.The claim was contested by Ellen C. Holland, and the circuit court entered a decree in favor of the contestant, from which this appeal has been taken by the complainant.

The controversy arises out of the following facts: In January, 1912, Martha S. Deal, sent for a friend and requested him to deposit her money in bank, saying that she did not expect to live long, and that she wanted the money to go to her sister, Ellen C. Holland, when she died.The friend told her that he could deposit the money in her name so that it would go to her sister at her death, and that it should be put on the bank book that way.In pursuance of this understanding, the money, $1,300, was deposited In the Merchants' & Mechanics' Savings Bank on savings account to the credit of "Martha S. Deal or Ellen C. Holland."At the time the deposit was made the receiving teller of the bank explained that the deposit was a joint account, and that either of the parties named could draw the money at any time, but that it was necessary to bring the passbook to the bank.In December, 1913, less than a year after the deposit was made, Mrs. Deal died, having then drawn upon the account four times, the amount drawn aggregating $300.After Mrs. Deal's death, Mrs. Holland drew $200, which was used for paying her sister's funeral expenses, etc.The balance of the original deposit, with accrued interest, is the subject of this litigation.After Mrs. Deal's death the bank book was produced from the possession of Mrs. Holland, taken to the bank for her, and the deposit changed, by the bank, to Mrs. Holland's name alone; the bank thereby recognizing its understanding with the decedent and Mrs. Holland at the time the deposit was made.That this joint deposit was made with the understanding that the balance thereof, not checked out during the joint lives of the two depositors, was to become the property of the survivor satisfactorily appears.

We are of opinion that, under the facts of this case, the effect of the deposit by Mrs. Deal to the joint credit of herself and her sister was to create a contract relation between the bank and the two joint depositors, under which the amount to the credit of the account became the property of Ellen C. Holland as the survivor of decedent and...