Pierce v. Boston Five Cents Sav. Bank

• Decision Date: 15 November 1878
• Citation: 125 Mass. 593
• Parties: William L. G. Pierce, administrator, v. Boston Five Cents Savings Bank
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

125 Mass. 593

William L. G. Pierce, administrator, v. Boston Five Cents Savings Bank

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

November 15, 1878

Suffolk. Contract to recover deposits amounting to $ 600, and $ 15 interest, in a savings bank. The writ and declaration described the action as brought by William L. G. Pierce as administrator of the estate of William Green, Jr., for the benefit of Martin A. Munroe, to whom, as the declaration alleged, Green, "being then in his last illness, and aware that he might not recover, gave and delivered his pass book, evidencing the deposits in said bank, as an absolute gift, meaning and intending to assign and transfer his pass book to said Munroe, and to give him the absolute ownership and right of possession of said deposits and interest."

The bank, in its answer, admitted the deposits; averred its readiness to pay the same and interest to whoever was legally entitled thereto, and its ignorance whether Pierce had been duly appointed administrator of Green's estate; denied generally all the other allegations of the declaration, and especially those as to the title of Munroe; and alleged "that the legal representatives of said Green's estate claim said deposits and interest as a part of the effects of said estate, and that no part thereof belongs to said Munroe, and the defendant has been notified not to pay said deposits or interest, or any part thereof, to said Munroe."

Upon the petition of the bank, the Superior Court ordered Pierce as administrator of Green's estate, to be made a party defendant under the provisions of the St. of 1876, c. 203 § 19, relating to savings banks, which is copied in the margin; ^[*] and he thereupon filed an answer "as claimant for benefit of Green's estate," denying that Green gave the bank book and deposits to Munroe as a donatio causa mortis, as set forth in the declaration and alleging that, if the bank book was so given, the gift rendered Green's estate insolvent, and was void.

At the trial before Colburn, J., and a jury, the pass book was in evidence, on the outside of which was the direction, "If you lose this book, give immediate information to the treasurer;" and inside, among the printed by-laws of the bank, the following: "It shall be the duty of the treasurer to enter all deposits, and payments made to depositors, in the books of the bank, and a duplicate of such entry in the book of the depositor, which shall be his voucher and the evidence of the amount deposited." "No person shall receive any part of his principal or interest, without producing the original book."

It appeared that the pass book had not been assigned by Green; and that his estate, including the said deposit of $ 615, consisted of $ 1237.50, and the funeral and other expenses did not exceed $ 174, and the debts did not exceed $ 26, unless the alleged donee, Munroe, should be considered as a creditor. Munroe testified that he had a legal claim against Green's estate, of $ 876, for board furnished and some expenses paid for Green; that he had never made any claim for it, but had consulted his counsel about it. Pierce was appointed administrator of Green's estate January 26, 1877, and the trial of this cause in the Superior Court was commenced January 18, 1878.

The defendant and the claimant requested the presiding judge to order a verdict for them, for these reasons: "1. That the delivery of the bank book to the plaintiff by the deceased in his last sickness, even if made when he did not expect to recover, and if intended by the deceased as a donatio causa mortis, did not pass to the plaintiff any right to the deposit in the bank. 2. That it appearing from the testimony in the case that the only property left by the deceased, including the bank deposit, $ 615, amounted to $ 1237.50, and that the deceased, at the time of the alleged gift, owed the plaintiff $ 876, in addition to debts to other parties, and that the deceased was insolvent at the time of the alleged gift and of his death, the gift of the bank deposit, if good in other respects as donatio causa mortis, is void, because made in fraud of creditors."

The judge declined so to rule; and instructed the jury that the ownership of the deposit would pass...