Petri v. Rhein

• Decision Date: 27 June 1958
• Docket Number: No. 12218.,12218.
• Parties: Martha M. PETRI, Administratrix, etc., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Minnie RHEIN, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

257 F.2d 268 (1958)

Martha M. PETRI, Administratrix, etc., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Minnie RHEIN, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 12218.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

June 27, 1958.

Melvin E. Levinson, Chicago, Ill., I. Harvey Levinson, Chicago, Ill., for appellant.

John E. Toomey, Chicago, Ill., for appellee.

Before FINNEGAN and PARKINSON, Circuit Judges, and MERCER, District Judge.

FINNEGAN, Circuit Judge.

Leo F. Petri, now deceased, supplied his niece, defendant here, with financial aid from the time her father died in 1908 until sometime in 1948, when Petri married. The plaintiff, Martha M. Petri, administratrix with the will annexed of the Estate of Leo F. Petri, brought the action below for declaratory judgment as to the ownership of shares of corporate stock, in Minnie Rhein's possession. There are two main blocks of stock involved: (1) shares originally owned by Leo F. Petri and transferred July 31, 1948 and March 17, 1950 by him to Rhein and himself as joint tenants with the right of survivorship. These consisted of 400 shares, Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation transferred first, followed in March by another 150 shares of the same corporation, and on the same day in March 305 shares of FitzSimmons & Connell Dredge & Dock Company were similarly transferred to Petri and Rhein, and (2) 340 shares in Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company issued December 21, 1949 in the names of Leo Petri and Minnie Rhein as joint tenants with the right of survivorship. But these latter certificates were never in the name of Petri alone. In her brief the appellant Administratrix informs us, as to the second block of 340 shares: "Appellant does not raise this issue on appeal."

All of the transfers were accompanied by joint tenancy agreements and this legend on the reverse side of the stock certificates: "For value received I hereby sell, assign and transfer unto Leo F. Petri and Miss Minnie Rhein as joint tenants with the right to survivorship and not as tenants in common, P. O. Box 105, Lake Mills, Wisconsin * * * shares of the capital stock represented by the within certificate. Signed Leo F. Petri." Other relevant facts, not clearly erroneous under Rule 52, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C., appear in D.C.Ill.1958, 162 F.Supp. 834, and we neither repeat nor disturb these findings.

We are aware of the early reluctance of Illinois courts to allow creation of a joint tenancy in personal property, as manifested, for example by In re Wilson's Estate, 1949, 404 Ill. 207, 88 N.E.2d 662, 14 A.L.R.2d 940. But we think the evidentiary support traced in the record before us for creation of such an estate between Petri and Rhein warranted the result reached by the district judge. Plaintiff's chief theory put forward as the basis for claiming ownership of the certificates, or shares, is that the transfer by Petri to himself and Rhein failed to create a joint tenancy because the unities of time and title were lacking. Petri, plaintiff contends, acquired no new ownership in the shares when he transferred to himself and Rhein, hence the interest of Rhein and Petri were not derived from the same conveyance simultaneously — or translated into practical terms Petri should have conveyed to a "straw man" and then the "straw" transfer to Petri and Rhein. But we think such a fiction was obviated by § 2 of the Joint Rights and Obligations Act of Illinois, Ill.Rev.Stat.1941, chap. 76, § 2, as amended, when read with Hood v. Commonwealth Trust & Sav. Bank, 1941, 376 Ill. 413, 34 N.E.2d 414.

There are clear unequivocal written agreements received in evidence expressing intention of creating the Petri-Rhein joint tenancy, with the right of survivorship in 400 shares of the Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation stock and 340 shares of Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company. However, no such joint tenancy agreements appear of record for 150 shares of Union Carbide & Carbon Corporation stock dated March 20, 1950, nor for 300 shares of FitzSimmons & Connell Dredge & Dock Company, dated March 17, 1950, but...