Kittredge v. Manning
| Decision Date | 07 February 1945 |
| Citation | 59 N.E.2d 261,317 Mass. 689 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
| Parties | AUSTIN J. KITTREDGE, executor, v. NORA MANNING (LYONS)& another. |
December 8, 1944.
Present: FIELD, C.
J., QUA, DOLAN RONAN, & SPALDING, JJ.
Gift. Joint Tenants.
Bank and Banking. Personal Property, Joint tenancy.
To make a valid gift of a joint interest in an account of a depositor in a savings bank, it is not necessary that an intention to make the gift and the depositor's act of changing the deposit into the names of himself and the donee as joint owners occur simultaneously; it is sufficient to the validity of the gift that the depositor, at some time after the actual change to the form of a joint account formed the intention that the ordinary incidents of a joint account should apply to the account.
A finding, that the owner of a savings bank deposit, after changing it into the names of himself and a niece as joint owners, made statements to her and others showing that at some time after the change he formed the intention to make a gift of a joint interest to her, warranted a conclusion that there was a valid gift of such an interest, although at the time of the change he did not have that intention and the niece never signed a card at the bank, never made any deposit in the account and never had possession of the deposit book.
PETITION, filed in the Probate Court for the county of Worcester on July 22 1943.
The case was heard by Wahlstrom, J. M. C. Jaquith, for the petitioner.
W. W. Buckley, (T.
E. Marshall with him,) for the respondents.
This petition in equity is brought to determine title to a deposit in the Clinton Savings Bank standing in the name of "Patrick Manning, Nora Manning, payable to either or the survivor." The petitioner is the executor of the will of Patrick, hereinafter referred to as the decedent. The case comes before us on the appeal of the petitioner from the decree entered by the judge that the deposit is the property of the respondent Nora Manning (Lyons), hereinafter called the respondent.
The evidence is not reported, but the judge at the request of the appellant made a report of the material facts found by him. See G. L. (Ter Ed.) c. 215, Section 11. Those facts may be summed up as follows: The decedent, a resident of Clinton, died on April 29, 1942, at the age of about sixty-eight years, leaving a will which was duly allowed and under the terms of which he bequeathed all of his property to three persons, none of whom was related to him. His estate consisted of personal property. His heirs at law were three brothers and several nieces and nephews. The respondent was a niece presumably by one of his brothers who resided in Ireland and survived the decedent. For several years the decedent had a deposit in the Clinton Savings Bank in excess of $4,000. On May 4, 1936, he went to the bank to make a deposit in his account. A teller informed him that his account was too large to carry in one name, and that if he wished to continue to make deposits therein he should "add a name to the book." The decedent instructed the teller to add the name of the respondent to the book, and that was done. The teller requested him to have Nora sign a card, but he replied that he preferred not to have her do so. "There is a pencil notation on the card which reads, `Patrick prefers not to have Nora know about this account.'" The respondent never signed any card at or for the bank, never had the book in her possession, and contributed no money to the account. The decedent's relations with her were friendly for many years. In May, 1928, he wrote her expressing his fondness for her and stating that he planned to leave his property to her. In 1938 he said to her in the presence of her sister, Soon after she went to Ireland. In 1940 the decedent said to her sister, Mrs. Corrigan, "I have a nice little bank book out for Nora." On April 10, 1942, he told her that he had Nora's name on the book in question, saying, also, Shortly before his death he spoke in similar terms again to Mrs. Corrigan. In 1940 he made similar statements to his nephew Austin who was the respondent's brother. The decedent was admitted to the Clinton Hospital on April 12, 1942, and on that day he delivered the book of deposit in question to the petitioner. On April 14, the petitioner directed his attention to the joint account in his name and in the name of the respondent, and the decedent said, The ultimate findings of the judge are that the deposit in question is the property of the respondent "because of a contract with the bank and the communication to and acceptance by . . . [her]."
Since the evidence is not reported, the sole issue is whether the decision of the judge is supported by the facts found. Castle v Wightman, 303 Mass. 74 , 76. Colby v. Callahan, 311 Mass. 727 , 728. The...
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