Mckinnon v. First Nat. Bank
| Decision Date | 30 May 1919 |
| Citation | 82 So. 748,77 Fla. 777 |
| Parties | McKINNON v. FIRST NAT. BANK OF PENSACOLA. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Rehearing Denied July 29, 1919.
Appeal from Circuit Court, Escambia County; A. G. Campbell, Judge.
Suit by Allen Alexander McKinnon, by Lee Daniell, his next friend against the First National Bank of Pensacola, a corporation. From a decree for defendant, plaintiff appeals. Reversed.
Syllabus by the Court
In order that the deposit of money in a bank to the credit of another person shall operate as a valid gift inter vivos, it must appear not only that the depositor intended a gift, but also that he executed his intention, and there must be an acceptance of the gift by the donee. But where a gift made to an infant is beneficial, and not burdensome, the law will presume acceptance.
A natural guardianship, as such, confers no right to intermeddle with the property of the infant, but is a mere personal right in the father or other ancestor to the custody of the person of his heir apparent or presumptive until attaining 21 years of age.
A guardian by nature is entitled to the charge only of the person, and not of the personal estate, of the ward.
COUNSEL John C. Avery and Watson & Pasco, all of Pensacola, for appellant.
E. C Maxwell, of Pensacola, for appellee.
This is an action brought by a minor, by his next friend, against the First National Bank of Pensacola for an accounting and payment of complainant's claim against the bank. There are four cases pending before this court with identical pleadings and testimony.
Alex McKinnon, the father of the appellant, deposited at divers times for several years in the savings department of the First National Bank of Pensacola various sums of money to the credit of each of his four minor children. The passbooks show that on some occasions he would make deposits to the credit of two of the children on the same day, and at other times to only one of them. Individual passbooks were issued in the names of the four minor children, and signature cards left with the bank indicating how checks against the accounts should be signed. The cards of Ethel B. McKinnon and Martel C. McKinnon contain their names by Beulah F McKinnon, while those of Eleanor W. McKinnon and Allen Alex McKinnon contain their names only. Ethel and Martel McKinnon's cards seemed to have been signed by the same person, and are in a different handwriting from those of Allen Alex McKinnon and Eleanor McKinnon.
The deposits to the credit of the children with interest amounted to something over $11,000, was drawn by the father, and loaned to the president of the bank, taking his individual notes payable to each of the children from whose account the money was taken. These notes were never paid. None of the children had a legal guardian. None of the checks on which he drew out the money was signed by any of the children, or in the manner indicated on the identification cards.
The father, Alex McKinnon, carried an account in his own name. He also from time to time deposited money to the credit of his wife's account.
Two of the children, aged respectively 15 and 17 years, testified to having had the passbooks in their possession; that they had been shown to them by their father, who said they belonged to them, and told them that he put the money in the bank for them. The books were at one time kept in a drawer, and later in a vault in their home, to which all the family had access at all times and opened the vault whenever they wished to; that they never signed any checks or drew out any money from the bank except on one occasion when they each asked their father to get $20 or $25 for them from their money in the bank. Both are quite positive and clear in their testimony that their father from time to time handed them the deposit books containing entries of deposits made by him in their names, and they frequently heard him say that the money which he had deposited to the credit of their accounts and to their brothers' was theirs as gifts from him.
Mrs. Beulah McKinnon, wife of Alex McKinnon, the mother of the minor children, testified that her husband, when he made deposits of money to the account of the children, gave it to them; that she saw the passbooks showing these deposits from time to time, and that several times he gave them to her and she would put them away in the vault; that he deposited money in her name in the bank to the credit of her account; and that sometimes she let him draw some of it. She was quite positive that her husband said that he gave the money so deposited to her and the children, and frequently when he made a deposit to the credit of the children he would tell them that he had deposited the money for them.
In order that the deposit of money in a bank to the credit of another person shall operate as a valid gift inter vivos, it must appear not only that the depositor intended a gift, but also that he executed his intention, and there must be an acceptance of the gift by the donee. But where a gift made to an infant is beneficial, and not burdensome, the law will presume acceptance. Davis v. Garrett, 91 Tenn. 147, 18 S.W. 113. Or, as some courts say, 'the law accepts it for him.' Copeland v. Summers, 138 Ind. 219, 35 N.E. 514, 37 N.E. 971; De Levillain v. Evans, 39 Cal. 120.
In the course of their examination the two children, Martel and Ethel McKinnon, said the money was to be theirs at the age of 18 years, and upon these replies the appellee predicates most of his argument that in making the deposits the father did not intend the money to be theirs until each attained the age of 18 years.
In view of all the other testimony and the circumstances surrounding the transactions tending to show that the father when he made these deposits intended them to be free gifts to his children, we do not think that what these two very young persons said in this connection is conclusive of the question.
To accept that view we would be presented with this condition Mr. McKinnon told his wife and children that he gave them the money when he deposited it to their credit, and then said, 'But I am...
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