Webb's Estate, In re

• Decision Date: 24 May 1956
• Docket Number: No. 33426,33426
• Court: Washington Supreme Court
• Parties: In the Matter of the ESTATE of Stanley F. WEBB, Deceased. Jeannette R. WEBB, as Executrix of the Estate of Lester E. Webb, Respondent, v. William A. KIDDER, as Administrator of the above entitled estate of Stanley F. Webb, Deceased, and William A. Kidder and Dorothy Kidder, his wife, both individually and as the marital community consisting thereof, Appellants, and Floyd Webb, individually, Defendant.

Page 6

49 Wn.2d 6

297 P.2d 948

In the Matter of the ESTATE of Stanley F. WEBB, Deceased.

Jeannette R. WEBB, as Executrix of the Estate of Lester E.

Webb, Respondent, v. William A. KIDDER, as Administrator of the above entitled

estate of Stanley F. Webb, Deceased, and William A. Kidder

and Dorothy Kidder, his wife, both individually and as the

marital community consisting thereof, Appellants,

and

Floyd Webb, individually, Defendant.

No. 33426.

Supreme Court of Washington, Department 2.

May 24, 1956.

Lewis A. Bell, Clarence J. Coleman, Everett, for appellants.

O. D. Anderson, J. P. Hunter, Everett, for respondent.

HILL, Justice.

We are here concerned primarily with the effect of the deposit of community funds by a member of the community in a joint account with a person not a member of the community, such deposit being payable, by the terms of the joint account, to either or the survivor of them. Also, we have before us the status of a joint account with the right of survivorship, in a national bank, prior to June 7, 1951, the effective date of chapter 18, Laws of 1951, p. 36.

William A. Kidder, a married man, and Stanley F. Webb, a bachelor, were halfbrothers, very close friends, and hunting companions. Both lived in Everett, and for some fifteen years prior to 1947 Webb had lived in the Kidder home. They planned to own and operate a chicken ranch together when Kidder retired from the fire department (which could have been in 1955). For the purpose of accumulating funds for the purchase of such a ranch, a joint savings account was opened in the First National Bank of Everett. The first deposit, made March 16, 1951, was $4,585, made up of $2,585 furnished by Webb and $2,000 furnished by Kidder. The deposit was made by the latter and he is the only one who signed the signature card at that time. Although deposits were made by both parties from time to time, there is evidence that as late as October, 1953, a signature card had not been signed by Webb; certainly he had not signed it by August 19, 1952. But the card, signed by both Kidder and Webb, was in the bank's possession when Webb died, May 29, 1954.

The card reads as follows:

'71791 Joint Savings Account

'It is understood and agreed by the undersigned that the money now on deposit or hereafter deposited in

The First National Bank of Everett, Everett, Washington in the name of ___ and ___ is a joint account payable on either signature and to the survivor in either. * * *

'The following signatures are authorized on this account:

Signature: S. F. Webb

Signature: W. A. Kidder * * *'

The amount on deposit at the time of Webb's death was $8,895.60. Of this total, $4,850.85 represented funds furnished by Webb together with accumulated interest thereon, and $4,044.75 represented funds furnished by Kidder together with accumulated interest thereon. Kidder, as the survivor, drew out the entire amount and claims it by 'right of survivorship.' He was appointed administrator of Webb's estate and did not inventory the joint account in the probate proceeding, although he did, as required by statute, report the existence of the joint account to the state inheritance tax and escheat division.

Lester E. Webb, a brother of Stanley F. Webb and one of his heirs at law, sought in the probate proceeding to compel Kidder to inventory Webb's interest in the savings account as an asset of the estate. After Lester E. Webb died, his widow, Jeannette R. Webb, as executrix of his estate, was substituted for him and sought the same relief.

The trial court found that $4,850.85 of the money in the account belonged to Stanley F. Webb, and entered an order directing Kidder, as administrator of his estate, to inventory that amount as an asset of the estate. From that order, Kidder appeals as administrator and he and his wife appeal individually and as a marital community.

Section 1 of chapter 18, Laws of 1951, p. 36, effective June 7, 1951, provided that deposits in a national bank (and certain other banks) made

'* * * by any person in the names of such depositor and another person and in form to be paid to either or the survivor of them * * * shall, in the absence of fraud or undue influence, be conclusive evidence, in any action or proceeding to which either such bank or the surviving depositor is a party, of the intention of both depositors to vest title to such deposit and the additions thereto in such survivor.'

We hold that this statute was not retroactive, and that it had no application to accounts opened prior to the effective date of the act. In re Wind's Estate, 1948, 32 Wash.2d 64, 69, 200 P.2d 748; State ex rel. Thorp v. Devin, 1946, 26 Wash.2d 333, 340, 173 P.2d 994.

We have held, in the absence of such a statute and despite another statute abolishing the right of survivorship as an incident to joint tenancy, Laws of 1885, p. 165, § 1; Rem.Rev.Stat. § 1344, that parties can, by express contract, create a joint tenancy with a right of survivorship. In re Ivers' Estate, 1940, 4 Wash.2d 477, 104 P.2d 467. In that case, referring to community funds deposited by a husband and wife in a joint account in a national bank in Spokane, where the deposit agreement specified that each depositor's interest was joint and several in the amount of the account and that the death of one should not affect the right of the other to withdraw the entire account, we said, 4 Wash.2d at page 487, 104 P.2d at page 472:

'There is no suggestion of fraud, connivance, undue influence, or other disintegrating force employed in the execution of the agreement. There is no evidence which militates against the natural and logical conclusion that the husband and wife, having made a joint account of the community funds, intended exactly what the agreement stated, namely, that during the lifetime of both either could withdraw any part of the funds and that the death of one should not affect the right of the other to withdraw the entire amount. Each had a right in praesenti, which neither the death nor the disability of the other could change. We are of the opinion that, as to this deposit, the parties contracted to, and did, create a joint tenancy of the funds with the right of survivorship.'

With reference to a deposit of community funds in a joint account in a national bank in Portland, Oregon, this court, referring to the deposit agreement, which provided that deposits were payable to either depositor or the survivor of them, said, 4 Wash.2d at page 487, 104 P.2d at page 472:

'This provision is not, in our opinion, quite so emphatic or effective as that in the Spokane deposit. Nevertheless, in view of the facts in this particular case, the relationship of the parties, and the nature of the funds, we still believe that the agreement sufficiently evidenced the intention of the joint depositors to create a joint tenancy with the right of survivorship.'

We are not here concerned with a conclusive-evidence statute. We are concerned only with whether there is evidence that establishes that Kidder and Webb did not intend what their agreement states. In the language of some of our cases, Is there evidence that overcomes the presumption that they intended to create a joint tenancy with right of...