Lett v. Twentieth St. Bank
| Decision Date | 13 October 1953 |
| Docket Number | No. 10519,10519 |
| Citation | 77 S.E.2d 813,138 W.Va. 759 |
| Court | West Virginia Supreme Court |
| Parties | LETT, v. TWENTIETH STREET BANK et al. |
Syllabus by the Court.
A joint tenancy is created in money deposited in a bank in the names of two or more persons, 'in form to be paid to either', under Code, 31-8-23, and the same may be withdrawn by any of the persons so named. In the event of the death of one or more of such depositors, a sole survivor is entitled to the entire amount remaining in such deposit.
Daugherty and Daugherty, Huntington, for plaintiff in error.
Henry L. Max, Claude M. Morgan, Huntington, for defendants in error.
This is a proceeding by notice of motion for judgment, instituted in the Circuit Court of Cabell County by Prudence Lett against the Twentieth Street Bank, a corporation.
The notice of motion is grounded on a claim that plaintiff is the sole owner of a savings deposit and interest thereon, amounting to $4,286.64.
The bank filed an affidavit admitting the deposit of $4,000 and that interest had accrued thereon in the amount of $286.64. The affidavit further stated that Delania Wilson and Boyd Wilson are deceased. S. P. Chapman, administrator of Delania Wilson, and Drewrie J. Chapman, administrator of Boyd Wilson, were impleaded as defendants.
The trial court required the administrators aforesaid to appear, state and maintain their claim or else relinquish same. The administrators appeared and filed a joint affidavit to the effect that there was nothing due the plaintiff on the demand stated in her notice of motion.
A jury was waived and the facts submitted to the court in lieu of a jury. The court found that the plaintiff was entitled to the entire amount, and that the two administrators should take nothing in this action. Drewrie J. Chapman, administrator of Boyd Wilson, prosecutes this writ of error.
The record disclosed that on the 14th day of January, 1947, Boyd Wilson deposited the sum of $3,000 in the Twentieth Street Bank, and on October 18, 1947, made another deposit of $1,000, both deposits having been made in a savings account denominated 'Boyd or Delania Wilson', who were husband and wife. In the year 1950, Boyd Wilson caused the name of Prudence Lett, his sister, to be added as a depositor, so that the pass book read: 'Boyd or Delania Wilson or Prudence Lett'. He procured a signature card from the bank, took the card to his sister's home and caused her to write her signature thereon. The record does not show, but it is probable that all of the money so deposited belonged to Boyd Wilson, and that neither his wife nor his sister, Prudence Lett, owned any part thereof. Likewise, the record fails to show expressly that there was an intention on the part of Boyd Wilson to create a survivorship for the benefit of his sister, though there is some indication from the testimony by a daughter of Prudence Lett that Wilson intended that his sister was to receive the money so deposited. The record is silent as to the possession of the pass book issued by the bank when the account was opened.
Boyd Wilson had no children and, so far as this record shows, died intestate. Delania Wilson, his wife, died intestate approximately one month after Boyd Wilson. Prudence Lett, at the time of the institution of this proceeding, is the sole survivor of the three persons named in the savings account. She relies upon Code, 31-8-23, as entitling her to the whole amount of the savings account. If she is correct in such contention, all of the money will go to her. On the contrary, if her contention is not upheld and the money belongs to the estate of Boyd Wilson, the entire amount passed to his wife, upon his death; and upon her death intestate, went to her several children, she having had five children by a former marriage, the administrators being her sons.
The impleaded defendants contend that the statute in nowise confers any property rights on Prudence Lett; that there is no manifestation of intent to create a joint tenancy in the sum of money; and that the plaintiff did not show that she was entitled to the money or any part thereof so deposited in the bank.
This proceeding, as above indicated, presents the question whether the sole survivor of three persons named as joint depositors in a savings account of a bank, is entitled to all of the money in such account and accrued interest thereon.
The statute, here invoked, reads in part as follows:
'When a deposit is made by any person in the name of such depositor and another person and in form to be paid to either, or the survivor of them, such deposit, and any additions thereto made, by either of such persons, upon the making thereof, shall become the property of such persons as joint tenants; and the same, together with all interest thereon, shall be held for the exclusive use of the persons so named, and may be paid to either during the lifetime of both, or to the survivor after the death of one of them; and such payment and the receipt or the acquittance of the one to whom such payment is made shall be a valid and sufficient release and discharge for all payments made on account of such deposit, prior to the receipt by the banking institution of notice in writing, signed by any one of such joint tenants, not to pay such deposit in accordance with the terms thereof.' Code, 31-8-23.
The statute above quoted is clear, unambiguous and needs no construction. The legislative purpose and intent in the enactment of the statute quoted in part above, was to protect banking institutions. In so doing, the statute created certain property rights in all of the depositors named in a savings account.
It is to be observed that the element of survivorship in a joint tenancy in real or personal property, in general, has been abolished by statute, Code, 36-1-19, which provides, in substance, that any interest theretofore belonging to a decedent, whether present, by way of reversion, remainder or other future interest, whether it be in real or personal property, shall be disposed of as if the person owning such interest had been a tenant in common.
But Code, 31-8-23 restored the element of survivorship as to joint deposits made in a bank. In...
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DeLong v. Farmers Bldg. & Loan Ass'n
...law was restored as to joint deposits made by two or more persons in a bank but only as to such bank deposits. Lett v. Twentieth Street Bank, 138 W.Va. 759, 77 S.E.2d 813. In the Lett case it appeared that Wilson made two deposits in a savings account in a bank in the names of Boyd or Delan......
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Dorsey v. Short
...deposit, then this was a question of fact in this case and summary judgment would not have been proper. In Lett v. Twentieth Street Bank, 138 W.Va. 759, 77 S.E.2d 813, this Court interpreted the predecessor section to Code 31A--4--33 primarily as it related to the survivorship language in t......
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Farrar v. Young, s. 13634
...after his death to the surviving joint tenant. In accord: Wilkes v. Summerfield, W.Va., 212 S.E.2d 316 (1975); Lett v. Twentieth Street Bank, 138 W.Va. 759, 77 S.E.2d 813 (1953). The next assignment of error relates to the court's refusal to allow attorneys' fees to either party as charges ......
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Erickson v. Kalman
...rights of survivorship where there are two donees and one dies shortly after the donor, as in the instant case. In Lett v. Twentieth Street Bank, 138 W.Va. 759, 77 S.E.2d 813, one Boyd Wilson named Prudence Lett, his sister, as a depositor so that the passbook read 'Boyd or Delania Wilson o......