In re Sloan's Estate

CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Citation98 A. 966,254 Pa. 346
Docket Number352,351
PartiesSloan's Estate
Decision Date01 July 1916

Argued May 8, 1916

Appeals, Nos. 351 and 352, Jan. T., 1916, by Thomas Sloan and Andrew Sloan, from Decree of O.C. Fayette Co., March T. 1914, No. 18, granting review of account of the executors of William Sloan, deceased. Affirmed.

Petition for review of account of executors of William Sloan deceased. Before WORK, P.J.

The facts appear by the opinion of the Supreme Court.

The lower court granted the relief prayed for by striking out the item of $4,999.33 from the executors' account. Thomas Sloan and Andrew Sloan appealed.

Error assigned, among others, was the order of the court.

The assignments of error are overruled and the decree is affirmed.

E. C. Higbee, of Sterling, Higbee & Matthews, with him C. W. Rush, for appellant.

Henry A. Jones, with him E. D. Brown, for appellee.

Before BROWN, C.J., POTTER, MOSCHZISKER, FRAZER and WALLING.

OPINION

MR. JUSTICE WALLING:

William Sloan, late of Fayette County, died testate in June, 1912. During the preceding year he had made eleven separate deposits of money in the Citizens' National Bank of Connellsville, Pa., taking in each case a certificate of deposit, some of which were made "payable to the order of himself or wife" and the balance "payable to the order of William Sloan or wife"; which certificates, amounting in all to $5,319.33, were so held at his death. His widow and John Risdon were appointed and qualified as executors. She was sixty-seven years old and in poor health, in fact she was qualified as such executor at her residence, and Mr. Risden took active charge of the settlement of the estate. An inventory was made in which she appears to have taken no part, and wherein ten of said certificates, amounting to $4,999.33, were inventoried as "Cash in Bank (Cit. Nat. Connellsville) $4,999.33."

She removed to Allegheny County in the fall of 1912, and the first account of the executors, the one here in question, was filed January 16, 1914. To it appear the signatures of both executors; however, it is sworn to only by Risdon. What if any part she took in preparing the account does not appear. In it the executors are charged with the amount of the inventory, to wit: $56,071.33, which includes said item of Cash in Bank $4,999.33. The eleventh certificate of deposit above mentioned, for $320, was collected by Mrs. Sloan as her own and not included in the inventory. She retained possession of the other ten certificates, had them reissued in one certificate to herself individually and disposed of the same as a bequest in her last will. And aside from the account, and what inference might be drawn from the inventory, there is nothing to indicate that she ever regarded any of those certificates as belonging to her husband's estate.

Mrs. Sloan did not appear at the audit of said account, and in due course it was confirmed. She died testate February 20, 1915. Both Mr. and Mrs. Sloan died without issue. She never elected to take against his will, although it gave her less than she would have received under the intestate laws. However, it gave her the life use of his estate.

Shortly after her death the executor of her estate filed his petition in the Orphans' Court, in this case for a review of said account, averring inter alia that said certificates were held by Mr. and Mrs. Sloan by entireties and that the title thereto vested in her by right of survivorship, and that inadvertently and under a misapprehension they had been included as a part of his estate. The court so found and granted the relief prayed for by striking the said item of $4,999.33 from said account. Actual distribution had not been made.

The rule that the title to property held jointly by husband and wife vests in the survivor applies to personal as well as to real property: Bramberry's Est., 156 Pa. 628; Parry's Est., 188 Pa. 33; Klenke's Est. (No. 1), 210 Pa. 572.

It is a joint deposit with right of survivorship where the certificates are payable to husband or wife, as well as where payable to husband and wife. In either case it is held by entireties: Klenkes' Est. (No. 1), supra.

The legal ownership of the eleven certificates vested in Mrs Sloan on the death of her husband, and from all the circumstances we...

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