Ries v. Ries' Estate

• Decision Date: 25 May 1936
• Docket Number: 54
• Parties: Ries v. Ries's Estate, Appellant
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

185 A. 288

322 Pa. 211

Ries v. Ries's Estate, Appellant

No. 54

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

May 25, 1936

Argued April 13, 1936

Appeal, No. 54, Jan. T., 1936, by plaintiff, from judgment of C.P. Luzerne Co., March T., 1934, No. 749, in case of Mary Ries v. Estate of Anna Martha Ries, deceased. Judgment affirmed.

Interpleader proceeding. Before JONES, J.

The opinion of the Supreme Court states the facts.

Verdict and judgment for plaintiff in interpleader. Plaintiff appealed.

Errors assigned, among others, were various parts of charge.

Judgment affirmed.

Adrian H. Jones, for appellant.

James P. Costello, Jr., for appellee.

Before KEPHART, C.J., SCHAFFER, MAXEY, DREW, LINN, STERN and BARNES JJ.

OPINION

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE KEPHART:

This is an appeal in an interpleader proceeding to determine the ownership of a savings bank deposit of approximately $3,500 in the name of Anna M. Ries, who was 87 years of age at the time of her death. Mary Ries, her daughter, claimed the fund as a gift. The other children, through the executors of the estate, resist the claim. The mother and daughter lived together harmoniously for many years after the other members of the family had married. She took care of her mother for at least twenty years. There was considerable feeling among decedent's children. All had displayed animosity toward Mary and attempted to show cruelty on her part toward the mother.

Her claim is based on a written order on the bank, accompanied by delivery to her of the deposit book. The order reads as follows:

"Hazleton National Bank

Oct. 2, 1933

I give all the money to my daughter Mary that I have in your bank pay it to her

"Anna Martha her X mark Ries

Mary Ann Scowcroft

Emma Ann Davis."

She presented the order to the bank for payment for the first time eight days after decedent's death. The bank refused to pay it.

Appellant averred lack of mental capacity, undue influence, forgery in procuring the order, and no delivery of the deposit book. The court instructed the jury that if decedent had executed the written order and delivered it along with the deposit book to Mary with intent to make a gift of the funds on deposit, the burden was on the contestants to show undue influence, lack of mental capacity or fraud. The jury found for claimant.

The errors assigned in this appeal are the refusal to charge that due to the relationship existing between decedent and her daughter, the transaction was presumed void and the burden rested on claimant to show that it was fair and voluntary; and that since the written order was not drawn for the exact amount standing to the credit of decedent, her death revoked the gift. Other trial errors assigned are the refusal to admit declarations alleged to have been made by decedent in the absence of Mary, complaining of her conduct toward the declarant.

To constitute a valid gift inter vivos two essential elements must appear: a present intention to make the gift and, at the same time, an actual or constructive delivery to the donee as divests donor of all dominion over the subject and invests donee therewith (Yeager's Est., 273 Pa. 359, 362; Reese v. Phila. Trust Co., 218 Pa. 150, 158); the burden of proof is upon claimant to establish these elements (Kaufmann's Est., 281 Pa. 519, 531); and facts establishing undue influence or lack of mental capacity must be affirmatively shown by those attacking the transaction: Weber v. Kline, 293 Pa. 85, 87; Northern Trust Co. v. Huber, 274 Pa. 329, 333.

The court below charged the jury to this effect. The record reveals that claimant, the appellee, met this burden by showing a writing executed by decedent manifesting an intent to make a gift of all the money and ordering the bank to pay it. It was testified that at the same time she handed her the deposit book. There was also testimony that Mary's mother said "all the money in the bank . . . was for her [Mary] . . . so that she would have something to care for herself because the others [her children] were all married and had homes of their own." This was clear, convincing and persuasive evidence of an intent to make a gift and a delivery divesting the donor of all control over the funds.

It is argued that appellee had to go further and show affirmatively that the gift was free, open, voluntary and well understood. Appellant relies mainly on McConville v. Ingham, 268 Pa. 507, where we recited the principle that if the relationship existing between the alleged donor and donee appears to be of such a character as to render it certain they did not deal on equal terms, the transaction is presumed void, and the burden rests upon appellee to show affirmatively that no deception was used, and that all was fair and open. This is a partial quotation from Stepp v. Frampton, 179 Pa. 284, 289. These cases are clearly distinguishable from the case at bar. In the Stepp case a bill in equity was brought to secure the cancellation of an assignment of mortgages. The parties were strangers and did not deal on equal terms, which is not true in this case. The rule there stated has no applicability here. In the McConville case the plaintiff, a widow, aged 92, who had several children and grandchildren, delivered checks to her granddaughter, aged 23, for a large part of her small estate, which she deposited in her own instead of her grandmother's name, as the latter contended she ordered. It appeared from the claimant's own testimony that her grandmother was weak and incompetent. Furthermore it was very unnatural for her to give the larger part of her estate to one of the grandchildren to the exclusion of all her own children. This court very properly held that the burden rested on the granddaughter to establish affirmatively that it was fair and open, because of the donor's conceded mental incapacity and the suspicious circumstances surrounding the transaction making it probable unfair advantage had been taken.

In the instant case the relationship was that of mother and daughter, and the evidence shows they lived together for many years after the other children had gone. The action of decedent must be regarded as natural under the circumstances. The rule is that where the donor and donee are strangers the presumption against a voluntary transfer is greater than where a more intimate relationship exists between them. When the gift is from parent to child, the transaction is not unusual and no presumption against invalidity arises: Kaufmann's Est., supra. In Northern Trust Co. v. Huber, supra, an old and feeble man turned over to his son and daughter-in-law some bonds and cash without words showing an intention to limit their rights of ownership. This court held that by reason of the relationship existing between the parties no presumption against the invalidity of the gift arose, and the burden was on those attacking the transaction to establish affirmatively facts showing undue influence. See also Weber v. Kline, supra.

The court below actually placed a heavier burden on appellee than the law requires. It charged the jury to "Bear in mind that the burden is upon the plaintiff [appellee] to show that all was fair, open, voluntary, and well understood." The assignments of error as to the burden of proof are dismissed.

Appellant also contends that the delivery of the written order along with the deposit book did not serve to pass title to appellee and divest decedent of all control over the funds on deposit. It is argued that as the delivery of a check is not an executed gift of money but merely constitutes an order to pay which is revoked by the death of the donor before actual payment, the same rule applies to the writing before us. Estate of Eshenbaugh, 114 Pa.Super. 341, is cited in support of this contention. The court there held that the death of the donor prior to actual payment of the checks revoked the gift, since the checks were not for the full and exact amount of money in the bank. The written order here was not blank as to amount but covered all moneys on deposit in the bank.

While it is true that the delivery of a bank deposit book, though coupled with words manifesting intent to make a gift, will not pass title to a bank account and constitute a valid gift (Walsh's App., 122 Pa. 177; Grigonis's Est., 307 Pa 183), it is established that where a check is drawn on a bank for the full amount on deposit and the drawer intends to make a gift of the entire bank account, it will operate as an equitable assignment of all the funds on deposit: Taylor's Est., 154 Pa. 183; Campbell's Est., 274 Pa. 546. The facts in the case at bar closely parallel those in Campbell's Estate. There a decedent, shortly prior to his death, drew a check to the order of his broth...