Robinson v. Delfino

• Decision Date: 03 April 1998
• Docket Number: No. 96-316-A,96-316-A
• Citation: 710 A.2d 154
• Parties: Shayle ROBINSON, Administrator of the Estate of Florence A. Izzi, v. Elisa DELFINO et al. ppeal.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 154

710 A.2d 154

Shayle ROBINSON, Administrator of the Estate of Florence A. Izzi, v. Elisa DELFINO et al.

No. 96-316-Appeal.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

April 3, 1998.

Steven Aaron Robinson, Providence, Shayle Robinson, Cranston, for Plaintiff.

Rosemary Healey, James M.Green, Christopher D. Healey, Providence, for Defendant.

Before WEISBERGER, C.J., and LEDERBERG, BOURCIER, FLANDERS and GOLDBERG, JJ.

OPINION

BOURCIER, Justice.

This case came before us on the appeal of the defendants, Elisa Delfino (Delfino), Delfino's husband, Paul, and Donald C. Rich (Rich), from the order of a trial justice, rendered after a nonjury trial in the Superior Court. ¹ The trial justice, relying primarily upon our opinion in Nocera v. Lembo, 121 R.I. 216, 397 A.2d 524 (1979), ordered the defendants to return the monetary funds previously contained in joint bank accounts that Delfino and Rich individually maintained with Florence A. Izzi.

I Facts and Case Travel

On December 27, 1993, Florence A. Izzi (decedent) died intestate. At the time of her death, she had two living siblings, her brother, John Izzi (Izzi), and her sister, Delfino. Prior to her death, on August 27, 1987, the decedent had opened a joint certificate of deposit in the names of Izzi and herself. That account was funded entirely with the decedent's own money, and her Social Security number appeared on the account. Both Izzi and the decedent signed signature cards for that account. No other deposits to or withdrawals from that account were ever made.

The decedent also maintained a safe-deposit box, as a joint tenant, with Delfino, for which they both signed signature cards, and with Rich as a joint tenant, for which they also both signed signature cards.

On October 16, 1984, and April 21, 1992, Rich, who lived for many years in the decedent's home prior to and at the time of the decedent's death, had opened with his own funds two joint bank accounts in his and the decedent's names. Rich's Social Security number appeared on both of those accounts.

The decedent, on February 5, 1993, had opened three joint bank accounts in her and Rich's names with funds taken entirely from joint bank accounts the decedent maintained with her sister, Delfino. ² The decedent's Social Security number appeared on all those accounts, and both Rich and the decedent signed account signature cards for the accounts. The signature cards all contained the statement "Joint Tenancy Account with Right of Survivorship." During the decedent's lifetime, Rich never had occasion to make any deposits into or withdrawals from those accounts. After the decedent's death, however, Rich withdrew the entire balance of the funds remaining in those accounts. In addition to those joint accounts with Rich, the decedent had also opened three other joint bank accounts with Rich--on January 28, 1991, February 24, 1992, and April 6, 1992, which were all entirely funded with her own funds and on all of which the decedent's Social Security number appeared. ³ Rich also withdrew the entire balance of those accounts after the decedent's death.

The decedent also maintained seven joint bank accounts with her sister, Delfino. ⁴ All the accounts were funded entirely with money from the decedent, and the decedent's Social Security number also appeared on all those accounts. After the decedent's death, Delfino withdrew the balances remaining in four of those accounts and placed those funds into joint accounts that Delfino maintained with her husband, Paul. ⁵

Neither Rich nor Delfino had ever had possession of any of the passbooks, bank statements, or certificates of deposit for any of the above accounts. In addition to the joint bank accounts referenced above, the decedent also maintained a separate personal checking account in her own name.

While the decedent was in a nursing home during her last illness, she requested her sister to retain an attorney for her. Delfino discussed with Izzi, brother to both the decedent and Delfino, the decedent's request, and Izzi recommended his own personal attorney, John Vallone (Vallone). Vallone was contacted, and he went to visit the decedent at the nursing home on December 23, 1993, a few days before she died. During that visit the decedent told Vallone that she wanted to give Delfino and Izzi a power of attorney so that they could handle her affairs. ⁶ However, she said that she was not yet ready to make a will. According to Vallone, the decedent also said that she did not know what she wanted to do with her money or what she wanted to do with some of the other assets in her estate. It is unclear whether the decedent, when referring to her "money," was referring to her personal bank account or to her joint accounts. Vallone apparently assumed that she was referring to the joint accounts because he then asked her if she had given the money in the joint bank accounts to other people during her lifetime. She responded that she had not. Vallone therefore personally concluded that those joint accounts would be part of the decedent's estate when she died.

In the trial justice's decision he relied in great part upon our holding in Nocera v. Lembo, 121 R.I. 216, 397 A.2d 524 (1979), and believed it to be applicable to the facts before him. In so doing, he attempted to determine whether the decedent had intended to make an inter vivos gift of the funds contained in the joint accounts effective at the time of her death. In Nocera we said that the form of a joint bank account constituted only prima facie evidence that the creator of the account intended an inter vivos gift. Id. at 218-19, 397 A.2d at 525. That presumption of an inter vivos gift we held could then be rebutted by "evidence tending to show that the name of the survivor was added to the account by the original owner for his [or her] convenience and not with the intention of making a gift of an interest therein to the survivor or [by evidence tending to show] that the original owner's intention was to vest an interest in the survivor only after the owner's death." Flynn v. Byrne, 82 R.I. 48, 53-54, 105 A.2d 800, 803 (1954). ⁷

The trial justice found controlling the trial evidence indicating that the decedent "retained dominion and control of the passbook or certificate of deposit at all times prior to her death; [that] there was no commingling of * * * money with Decedent's money in said accounts; [and that] the interest earned [on the joint accounts] was paid to Decedent and she paid any income taxes on it." Relying on that evidence, the trial justice found that there was no clear and satisfactory proof that the decedent "added the respective survivor's name to the joint accounts in dispute here with the intention of making and fully executing a present and immediate gift." The trial justice concluded that the decedent intended a testamentary transfer of her money and that as a result the funds in the joint bank accounts were not the property of the surviving joint owner but were instead the property of the decedent's estate. Accordingly, the trial justice ordered Rich and Delfino "to return any funds removed by them from any of the joint bank accounts that Decedent had opened in her name and in the name of a Defendant, plus interest earned thereon." Delfino, Rich, and Delfino's husband, the joint owner of the account into which Delfino deposited the funds she withdrew from her joint accounts with the decedent, appeal from that decision.

II New Law

We conclude that the law heretofore applied to joint bank accounts both in this jurisdiction and elsewhere has been both unpredictable and inconsistent, often frustrating the public's common understanding of what it always believed that a joint bank account was intended to accomplish. ⁸ Accordingly the time has now arrived for us to revisit our previous holdings in contested joint bank account cases, some of which date back into the last century. ⁹

Courts throughout this country have approached the analysis of joint bank accounts in a variety of ways. Some courts have historically used the common law gift theory when analyzing the legal effect of a joint bank account as we recognized in Nocera. See, e.g., Smith v. Youngblood, 68 Ark. 255, 58 S.W. 42 (1900); Ruiz v. Dow, 113 Cal. 490, 45 P. 867 (1896); Jacobs v. Jolley, 29 Ind.App. 25, 62 N.E. 1028 (1902); Schollmier v. Schoendelen, 78 Iowa 426, 43 N.W. 282 (1889); Goodan v. Goodan, 184 Ky. 79, 211 S.W. 423 (1919); Ebel v. Piehl, 134 Mich. 64, 95 N.W. 1004 (1903); McDonald v. Larson, 142 Minn. 244, 171 N.W. 811 (1919); Innes v. Potter, 130 Minn. 320, 153 N.W. 604 (1915); Nemcek v. Central City National Bank, 188 Pa.Super. 518, 149 A.2d 533 (1959). See also A.M. Swarthout, Annotation, Gift or trust by deposit of funds belonging to depositor in bank account in name of himself and another, 103 A.L.R. 1123 (1938); Donald Kepner, Five More Years of the Joint Bank Account Muddle, 26 U.Chi.L.Rev. 376 (1959); Donald Kepner, The Joint and Survivorship Bank Account--A Concept without a Name, 41 Cal.L.Rev. 596 (1953). The gift theory requires the court to consider the depositor's intent and the question of whether a gift was in fact intended and accomplished by the depositor.

Other courts have used the law of trusts to determine the survivor's interest in a joint bank account. See, e.g., Haller v. White, 228 Md. 505, 180 A.2d 689 (1962); Stiles v. Newschwander, 139 N.J. Eq. 1, 49 A.2d 572 (N.J.Ch.1946). See also Kepner, Five More Years, supra; Kepner, The Joint and Survivorship Bank Account, supra. The trust theory requires that before a survivorship interest in a joint bank account is granted, there must be a finding by the court that the depositor intended to convey an equitable interest in the funds in the joint account.

Still other courts have applied a joint tenancy analysis when the survivorship interest in a joint bank account is at issue, even though the four unities of time, title, interest, and possession,...