Nowicki v. Nowicki
| Decision Date | 04 February 1957 |
| Parties | Bronislaw NOWICKI v. John NOWICKI. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Edward J. Nantoski, Lawrence, for plaintiff.
Frederick H. Magison, Haverhill, for defendant.
Before WILKINS, C. J., and RONAN, COUNIHAN, WHITTEMORE and CUTTER, JJ.
This is a suit in equity arising out of a controversy between a father and son as to their respective rights in an insurance policy on the life of the father, in which no beneficiary is designated, and in an account in a Salem savings bank standing in the names of the father and son jointly, payable to either or the survivor. The bill was dismissed as to the insurance company issuing the policy and the savings bank, both of which were named as defendants in the bill.
A final decree was entered ordering the son to surrender the policy to his father and to surrender the pass book of the bank to him also. The decree further ordered that the son pay his father the sum of $8,550 which he had withdrawn from the savings bank together with interest of $1,814.03, amounting in all to $10,364.03. The evidence is reported and the judge made 'findings of fact.' The suit comes here upon the appeal of the son from the final decree. There was no error.
The facts as found by the judge and by us are as follows: The disputed savings account was opened originally on November 1, 1939, in the names of the son and his mother Antonina, payable to either or the survivor. At that time the father and his first wife Antonina each had an individual account in this bank. The father was ill and it was feared that he might die. As a result both acounts were withdrawn and a new account in the sum of $4,430.45 was opened in the names of Antonina and the son jointly, payable to either or the survivor. By accretion of interest and further deposits the account amounted to $8,463.14 on October 19, 1951. About this time Antonina became ill with an incurable disease and, in order to avoid what appeared to the father to be possible legal complications, this account was closed and a new account was opened in the same bank in the names of the father and son jointly, payable to either or the survivor. The father retained possession of the bank book which on February 14, 1952, showed a balance of $8,590.09.
Antonina died on November 11, 1951, and the father remarried in February, 1952. At the time of the trial the father was sixty-six years old and illiterate; the son was thirty-nine years old and a high school graduate. He was married in 1939 and had two children. The second marriage of the father caused a rift between father and son.
The son without the knowledge or consent of his father took the savings bank book and the policy from his father's house. In February and March, 1952, he withdrew all except $40.90 from this account.
The judge...
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