Noyes v. Institution For Savings in Newburyport

• Decision Date: 27 November 1895
• Citation: 164 Mass. 583,42 N.E. 103
• Parties: NOYES et al. v. INSTITUTION FOR SAVINGS IN NEWBURYPORT.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

164 Mass. 583

42 N.E. 103

NOYES et al. v. INSTITUTION FOR SAVINGS IN NEWBURYPORT.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Essex.

November 27, 1895

COUNSEL

Amos Noyes, for plaintiffs.

H.P. Moulton, for claimant.

C.C. Dame, for defendant, Institution for Savings.

OPINION

KNOWLTON, J.

The plaintiffs' testatrix, Annie M. Pike, deposited in the defendant's savings bank the money for which this suit is brought, and kept in her possession during her life the deposit book, which was found by the plaintiffs among her effects after her death. The account in the book was headed, "Annie M. Pike and Mary L. Hewitt, Newburyport, payable to either or survivor." It appears that the book was never in the possession of the claimant, and that she had no knowledge of the deposit until after the death of the testatrix. Upon these facts, it was rightly held that the deposit remains the property of the original depositor, and that the plaintiffs are entitled to recover. This is settled by a series of decisions in this commonwealth, as well as elsewhere. Ide v. Pierce, 134 Mass. 261; Brabrook v. Bank, 104 Mass. 228; Parkman v. Bank, 151 Mass. 218, 24 N.E. 43; Nutt v. Morse, 142 Mass. 1, 6 N.E. 763; Sherman v. Bank, 138 Mass. 582; Booth v. Bank, 162 Mass. 457, 38 N.E. 1120. Judgment on the finding.