Estate of Cullmann, Matter of, Docket No. 99512
| Decision Date | 11 August 1988 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 99512 |
| Citation | 169 Mich.App. 778,426 N.W.2d 811 |
| Parties | In the Matter of the ESTATE OF Julianna CULLMANN, Deceased Theodore CULLMANN, Personal Representative, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Margaret JEDD, Respondent-Appellant. 169 Mich.App. 778, 426 N.W.2d 811 |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US |
[169 MICHAPP 779] D'Agostini, McKinnon, Sable & Ruggeri, P.C. by Donald M. Strehl, Sterling Heights, for petitioner-appellee.
Kiefer, Allen, Cavanagh & Toohey by H. Rollin Allen, Detroit, for respondent-appellant.
Before J.H. GILLIS, P.J., and WAHLS and DOCTOROFF, JJ.
Respondent, Margaret Jedd, appeals as of right from a March 10, 1987, order of the Wayne County Probate Court directing her to [169 MICHAPP 780] turn over to the estate of Julianna Cullmann the proceeds of certain bank accounts previously held jointly by Jedd and Cullmann. We reverse.
The record reveals that Jedd and Cullmann were neighbors and close friends since 1948. Jedd stated that Cullmann was treated like a member of her family and that she thought of Cullmann as being "like a mother" to her. The two women were often together, and Cullmann spent holidays with Jedd and her family. For several years, Cullmann baby-sat for Jedd's daughter. Jedd sometimes ran errands for Cullmann, and when the latter was sick Jedd would take her to the hospital.
In 1981, Cullmann funded two joint bank accounts with Jedd. 1 The signature cards for the accounts were signed by both Cullmann and Jedd, one specifying that the funds in the account were the property of the signatories as joint tenants and would be paid to "any one of the undersigned or to any survivor of them," and the other stating that the funds were "payable to either with right of survivorship." Jedd testified that when these accounts were established Cullmann told her that the accounts--one a savings account and the other a money market account--were for Jedd. Jedd also testified that Cullmann owned an individual savings account containing $4,000 and kept $1,000 in cash hidden in her home in a place known to Jedd, apparently accumulated from social security payments and wages earned from baby-sitting and ironing, in order to pay her living expenses.
In May, 1985, Cullmann suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized. While in the hospital she told Jedd to take possession of the bank account [169 MICHAPP 781] books. At the end of May, when Cullmann returned home, Jedd returned the books to Cullmann, who said that if she were to become ill in the future Jedd should again take custody of the books. Shortly thereafter, when Cullmann returned to the hospital, Jedd again took custody of the bank account books. On June 12, 1985, Jedd withdrew the money from, and closed, the joint bank accounts, almost one month prior to Cullmann's death on July 10, 1985.
Ann Wrubel, Cullmann's niece, testified that when her aunt was in the hospital in 1985 she said that Jedd had access to her bank account and was "taking care of all her business." Henry Gutenkunst, whose wife was related to Cullmann, testified that three years before her death Cullmann said that she had a $10,000 money savings certificate in a joint account with Jedd which was to be cashed at the time of her death in order to pay her debts and funeral expenses, with the remainder returning to her estate.
On May 7, 1986, petitioner, Theodore Cullmann, the personal representative of Cullmann's estate, filed a petition requesting the probate court to declare the proceeds of the joint bank accounts to be assets of Cullmann's estate. He alleged that Jedd exerted undue influence in order to convince Cullmann to open the joint accounts and that Cullmann established the accounts merely for her convenience and without the intention of Jedd's obtaining survivorship rights. After hearing testimony, the probate court issued a written opinion on December 18, 1986, and an order on March 10, 1987, directing Jedd to turn over to Cullmann's estate the proceeds of the joint bank accounts. On appeal, Jedd argues, among other things, that the probate court erred in ordering her to turn over [169 MICHAPP 782] the proceeds of the accounts to Cullmann's estate. We agree.
The probate court, in concluding that the funds withdrawn by Jedd were being held by her under a constructive trust and had to be turned over to Cullmann's estate, reasoned--citing solely Allstaedt v. Ochs, 302 Mich. 232, 4 N.W.2d 530 (1942)--that since the funds had been withdrawn during Cullmann's lifetime, Jedd's ability to receive them as a joint owner by way of a right of survivorship was not in issue: "Mrs. Jedd," the court observed, Thus, the probate court declined to assess Jedd's entitlement to the bank accounts as a surviving joint owner, framing the issue as "whether or not Mrs. Cullmann intended [to make] a present gift of the joint bank accounts at the time they were established." Having determined "the fact that Mrs. Cullmann retained the [bank account books] in her possession and that she gave them to Mrs. Jedd for safekeeping but then required them from Mrs. Jedd upon her return from the hospital would indicate she did not intend [to make] a present gift," the probate court declared that Jedd had no right to keep Cullmann's money.
First, we note that Michigan's joint ownership statute regarding bank accounts provides that a deposit made in a jointly held bank account with the right of survivorship becomes the property of the joint tenants and may be paid to any one of such individuals during his or her lifetime or to the survivor or survivors of such individuals. M.C.L. Sec. 487.703; M.S.A. Sec. 23.303; see also Wright v. White, 156 Mich.App. 1, 6-7, 401 N.W.2d 288 (1986), lv. gtd. 428 Mich. 873, 402 N.W.2d 470 (1987). Moreover, that statute provides that a deposit made in a jointly held bank account with the right of survivorship shall, in the absence [169 MICHAPP 783] of fraud or undue influence, be prima facie evidence of the depositor's intention to vest title to the deposit in a surviving joint owner. M.C.L. Sec. 487.703; M.S.A. Sec. 23.303. See Jacques v. Jacques, 352 Mich. 127, 134-138, 89 N.W.2d 451 (1958); Traverse City State Bank v. Schuler, 29 Mich.App. 518, 185 N.W.2d 558 (1971), remanded on other grounds 385 Mich. 753, 187 N.W.2d 215 (1971). 2
Having briefly noted the content of the joint [169 MICHAPP 784] tenancy statute regarding bank accounts, we now turn to the only case cited by the probate court in its opinion. In Allstaedt, supra, a father opened two bank accounts to be held jointly by himself and his daughter. At the time the accounts were opened the daughter promised her father that she would not withdraw any money from the accounts without his consent. Two months before the father died, however, the daughter broke her promise and withdrew the funds from the two accounts. The Supreme Court, noting that jointly held bank accounts create by way of statute a rebuttable presumption establishing that title to such accounts is vested in a named joint owner, stated that "the simple question presented here ... is whether or not [the father] made a gift of the two bank accounts to his daughter." 302 Mich. 235, 4 N.W.2d 530. Emphasizing that the daughter herself had admitted that she was not to withdraw money without her father's consent and that a bank manager testified that the father stated at the time he opened one of the accounts that the joint ownership of the account "was for the purpose of having someone able to take care of emergencies," id., p. 237, 4 N.W.2d 530, the Supreme Court concluded that the father did not intend to make a gift to his daughter of the bank accounts. Therefore, the Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's decree ordering the daughter to pay to her father's estate the money, with interest, she had withdrawn from the jointly held accounts prior to her father's death.
In another case with some factual similarity to the case at bar, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court's decree requiring a named joint owner of certain bank accounts to turn over to the estate of a deceased joint owner the funds withdrawn from the joint account during the lifetime of the deceased joint owner. In Hazen v. Elmendorf, 365 [169 MICHAPP 785] Mich. 624, 113 N.W.2d 892 (1962), the decedent established joint bank accounts in the name of herself and of the defendant, Mrs. Verely M. Elmendorf. Testimony showed that the accounts were created for the purpose of permitting Elmendorf to render assistance in the withdrawal and investment of funds for the benefit of the decedent. However, Elmendorf withdrew money from the accounts and used it for her own purposes. The Supreme Court thus affirmed the lower court's declaration that Elmendorf held the withdrawn funds in a constructive trust for the decedent's estate.
We agree with the probate court that, during her lifetime, Cullmann intended to retain control of her joint bank accounts, desiring that only after her death would title to the funds in those accounts become fully vested to Jedd. If this were not the case, why would Cullmann so scrupulously have retained possession of the account books except during those periods at the end of her life when she was hospitalized and, apparently, in great peril of death? Jedd was not told at the time Cullmann opened the accounts how much money the accounts contained, and she was not given access to the...
To continue reading
Request your trial