In re Brown's Estate

• Decision Date: 26 November 1941
• Parties: In re BROWN'S ESTATE.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

22 A.2d 821
343 Pa. 230

In re BROWN'S ESTATE.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Nov. 26, 1941.

22 A.2d 821

[Copyrighted material omitted.]

22 A.2d 822

Appeal No. 125, March term, 1941, from order of Orphans' Court of Beaver County at No. 39, June term, 1940; Henry H. Wilson, Judge.

In the matter of the estate of Sarah Brown, deceased, wherein Leo Brown, administrator of the estate of Sarah Brown, deceased, filed a petition for a citation directed to the Monaca Federal Savings & Loan Association and Albert E. Brown and Robert E. Brown, for a rule to show cause why investment share certificates and a savings share book or certificate and an automobile should not be turned over to him as the property of the estate. From a decree discharging the rule to show cause, the administrator appeals.

Decree reversed as to Albert E. Brown and Robert E. Brown and record remitted with instructions to reinstate the rule for a citation, and decree affirmed as to the Monaca Federal Savings & Loan Association.

Argued before SCHAFFER, C. J., and MAXEY, DREW, LINN, STERN, and PATTERSON, JJ.

Graham & Dilley, Buchanan & Barrickman, and Charles Barrickman, all of Beaver, for appellant.

Lawrence M. Sebring and D. B. Hartford, both of Beaver, for appellees.

PATTERSON, Justice.

This is an appeal from a decree of the orphans' court of Beaver County discharging a rule to show cause why certain assets, claimed by the administrator of Sarah Brown, deceased, to have been the property of the decedent and in her possession at the time of her death, should not be surrendered for administration as part of the estate.

Sarah Brown, the decedent, died intestate on December 25, 1938, leaving to survive her five sons, the oldest of whom, Leo Brown, the appellant, was appointed administrator of her estate on April 19, 1940. Leo Brown, as administrator, on August 19, 1940, filed a petition for a citation, directed to the Monaca Federal Savings and Loan Association and two of his brothers, Albert E. Brown and Robert R. Brown, appellees, for a rule to show cause why two investment share certificates and a savings share book or certificate, issued to "Sarah Brown, in case of death to Robert Brown and Albert Brown, only" and representing accounts, aggregating $14,046.09, with the Monaca Federal Savings and Loan Association, formerly the Phillipsburg Building and Loan Association, should not be turned over to him or, in the event that the certificates could not be delivered, to show cause why their value at decedent's death, with interest and dividends, should not be paid to him as administrator. In addition to the securities, appellant also sought to recover, for the estate, a Dodge sedan automobile, now in possession of Albert E. Brown, the certificate of title to which was in decedent's name at the time of her death.

Prior to reorganization of the Phillipsburg Building and Loan Association, the

22 A.2d 823

endorsements on the securities in dispute read simply "Sarah Brown", but upon reorganization and the issuance of new certificates, several months before decedent's death, she told the secretary of the Association she wanted the new certificates "made out in these two names and payable to them only in case of her death", stating as her reason that "the other boys have inherited money from their father and have not taken care of the funds to her satisfaction." The secretary thereupon added the words "in case of death to Robert Brown and Albert Brown, only" and delivered the certificates to decedent, who placed them in a locked box or "toy bureau" in her home, used by her as a depository for her valuable and legal papers, where they remained until her death. Subsequent to the issuance of the new shares and up until her death, all dividends were paid to decedent, as before, and from time to time during this period she made withdrawals which, as the court below found, totalled $1,500. The securities and certificate of title to the automobile were found, after decedent's death, in the box where she kept her valuable papers, by the son Albert, who had obtained possession of the key to the box about six weeks before decedent's death, from a granddaughter to whom decedent gave the key, before leaving for a hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, where she underwent an operation and remained until shortly before her death, with instructions to give the key to him. In the interim between decedent's death and the grant of letters to appellant, the Association cancelled the old certificates, upon their presentation to it by Robert R. Brown, and, after deducting inheritance tax payments, opened two new savings share accounts, one for Albert E. Brown and one for Robert R. Brown, in the sum of $6,995.79 each.

An answer was filed by appellee Albert E. Brown, claiming the automobile as a gift from his mother, during her lifetime, and at the same time all of the appellees filed answers, averring that upon the death of decedent the investment share accounts and savings share account became the absolute property of Albert E. Brown and Robert R. Brown, by virtue of the terms of the endorsements thereon. After hearing and argument before the court en banc, at which time appellees questioned the jurisdiction of the orphans' court to grant the relief prayed for, the court below held that it did have jurisdiction, but discharged the rule, holding, as to the securities, that "the writing on the certificates and book was not testamentary; nor did it create a...