Fondren v. Bank of Franklin, 44024
| Decision Date | 30 May 1966 |
| Docket Number | No. 44024,44024 |
| Citation | 187 So.2d 304 |
| Parties | Mrs. Brady J. FONDREN v. BANK OF FRANKLIN and Mrs. Elaine Emfinger. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Gwin & Gwin, Natchez, for appellant.
McGehee, McGehee & Torrey, Meadville, for appellees.
This case has evolved from a claim to a joint and survivor's account in the Bank of Franklin at Meadville, Franklin County, Mississippi. The account was in the names of L. H. Emfinger, and Virginia Lois Emfinger, who is now Mrs. Brady J. Fondren. The claim arose under the following circumstances: On May 8, 1952, L. H. Emfinger, and Virginia Lois Emfinger, his daughter by a former marriage, signed a signature card establishing a joint and survivor's account in the Bank of Franklin. Thereafter, on November 20, 1954, L. H. Emfinger remarried, and his daughter Virginia Lois married Brady J. Fondren and moved to Natchez, Mississippi. L. H. Emfinger was an automobile salesman, and often signed small notes as cosigner with others. On December 20, 1963, L. H. Emfinger and his wife, Elaine, borrowed $1,322.40 from the Bank of Franklin and executed a mortgage on their home to secure the indebtedness. On January 12, 1964, L. H. Emfinger died. There was then on deposit in the joint checking account the sum of $3,490.14. After her father's death, Virginia Lois Fondren signed two checks of $190 and $25 for certain funeral expenses, leaving a balance of $3,275.14 in the aforementioned joint account. The deceased also owed the Bank at the time of his death as cosigner on certain notes, $101.50; $102.50; $25 and $775. These notes were all past due and unpaid. The total indebtedness due to the Bank by the deceased was $2,234.25. The Bank paid the balance of $1,040.89 to Virginia Lois Emfinger Fondren.
Mrs. Elaine Emfinger, the widow of L. H. Emfinger, was appointed administratrix of the estate, and promptly filed a petition in the estate proceedings to require the Bank of Franklin to pay the money on deposit in the account of L. H. Emfinger into the estate, or in the alternative, to require the Bank to offset the sum due on the trust deed against the account of L. H. Emfinger. The Bank answered, admitting the joint account, and requested that the court enter a decree permitting the Bank of Franklin to offset the funeral indebtedness due by L. H. Emfinger to the Bank against the amount due to the deceased in the joint account. Mrs. Virginia Lois Emfinger Fondren filed an answer in which she denied the statute of limitations had run against her claim as having a joint interest in the account. She denied that the Bank of Franklin was entitled to offset the indebtedness against the joint account. She made her answer a cross bill, in which she alleges that the Bank held security for the loan made on the home jointly owned by Mrs. Elaine Emfinger and L. H. Emfinger. She therefore claimed the full amount of the joint and survivor's account. On June 4, 1964, after having heard the evidence, the chancellor entered a decree setting out the various transactions and permitted the Bank of Franklin to offset the notes of indebtedness due by L. H. Emfinger at the time of his death against the joint account here involved, and directed the Bank to pay any balance in the joint account to Virginia Lois Fondren. Mrs. Fondren gave notice of appeal, but the appeal was never perfected.
Thereafter, on July 6, 1965, Mrs. Fondren filed an original bill styled 'Bill of Review' in the Chancery Court of Franklin County, Mississippi, in estate file No. 7764-A. The bill alleged that the court was correct in finding that the account involved was a joint account, with right of survivorship, but was in error in allowing the Bank of Franklin the right to offset the indebtedness owed to the Bank by a decedent. The complainant requested the court to examine the final decree, pleadings and proceedings upon which it was based for any material error on the face of the proceedings, and to reverse said decree, and order the Bank of Franklin to pay to the complainant the full amount of $2,234.25, with interest thereon at the legal rate. The bill is amended so as to request that the trust deed originally paid by the Bank out of the funds held by it on the joint account be called up and reinstated. The defendant, Mrs. Elaine Emfinger, was summoned by nonresident...
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Rives v. Franklin Life Ins. Co., 85-4778
...however, a chancery court decree cannot be collaterally attacked based on alleged errors in legal judgment. See Fondren v. Bank of Franklin, 187 So.2d 304, 306 (Miss.1966); Beckett v. Howarth, 237 Miss. 394, 115 So.2d 48, 51 (1959). Rather, a Mississippi chancery decree is subject to collat......
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Williams v. Rembert
...brief, asserts that this Court disfavors bills of review and disallows them in negligence actions in civil suits. Fondren v. Bank of Franklin, 187 So.2d 304, 306 (Miss.1966). A motion to reconsider in chancery court functions as a bill of review. Moreover, Julius contends that the legislatu......
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Oliver v. Oliver
...survivor[s], the account passes to the survivor[s] upon the death of a joint tenant." Strange, 548 So.2d at 1327; Fondren v. Bank of Franklin, 187 So.2d 304, 306 (Miss.1966). Furthermore, the joint tenancy proves to be unshakable, even by the discovery of a subsequent will in such matters. ......
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Bornaschella v. Orcutt, 53303
...within two years following the date of the final decree in the cause. Furthermore, bills of review are not favored. Fondren v. Bank of Franklin, 187 So.2d 304 (Miss.1966). We note that Mr. Orcutt, a man of some financial substance, did not see fit to obtain an attorney when his wife filed s......