Case ID: misc_6/html/0546-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Coleman, S.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Matter of Mulligan.
    (Surrogate’s Court—Orange County,
    January, 1894.)
    One B. purchased certain shares of stock in a building and loan association in his name as guardian for his minor nephew, who had no property; made almost all of the payments from his own funds and kept no account thereof. When the stock matured he had himself appointed guardian of the minor, and received the value of said shares, which he invested in a bond and mortgage for the minor. In a proceeding for an accounting, held, that he was not entitled to credit for the payments made by him on the stock; that the facts clearly indicated that he intended to make a gift of them to his nephew, and having been consummated by a full delivery, his purpose • could not thereafter be changed.
    Matter of the accounting of Edward C. Beirne, as guardian.
    The facts are sufficiently stated in the opinion.
    
      C. E. Cuddeback, for minor.
    
      Jno. J. Beattie, for guardian.
   Coleman, S.

Edward C. Beirne was appointed general guardian of the minor September 8, 1891. Mr. Beirne is a brother of the minor’s mother.

In the month of November, 1816, he purchased five shares of the stock of the Orange County Building and Loan Association in his name as guardian of the said Mulligan, and at various times thereafter, and prior to November, 1888, he made divers other payments required by the rules of the association (when the same were not made by the parents of the minor) upon said stock, which, with the amount paid at the time of purchasing the stock, amounted in all to the sum of $279.27. When the stock matured he caused himself to be legally appointed the minor’s guardian, and received as such guardian $1,000 from the association, the then value of said shares of stock. This sum the guardian invested upon bond and mortgage, which he still holds.

Upon this accounting Beirne seeks to credit himself with the $279.27 paid by him upon the building and loan association stock, to which objection is made on behalf of Mulligan, it being claimed that such payments were intended to be gifts to him. It was evident upon the hearing that the feelings of the parties toward each other have changed from what they formerly were ; and it is now necessary to determine the purpose and the legal effect of the acts of the said Beirne in connection with said stock.

The payments were voluntarily made with the knowledge that the minor had no other property. When made, they became not deposits, but an interest in the stock of the association, which, by his own act, were made to belong upon the books of the association to him as guardian of his nephew. He thus parted with the dominion over the property represented by the stock, except in the capacity of guardian. No entry in the nature of an account was made of the payments, and they were not made for the purpose of protecting property belonging to the minor, unless this stock is to be considered the property of the minor, and being so considered it could not at the same time be the property of Mr. Beirne; nor were they made for necessities required for the maintenance of the minor. If Mr. Beirne had died during the minority of his nephew, leaving the stock and the payments made by him in the association as they stood before maturity, I think no one could have successfully questioned the ownership of the minor. These facts, supported by the further fact that Mr. Beirne himself drew the fund from the association and invested the whole of it in a mortgage for the minor, clearly indicate to my mind an intention on his part, at the time of making the payments, to make a gift of. them to his ■ nephew, a purpose which he cannot now change, such intention having been fully consummated by a complete delivery, whereby he divested himself of all title thereto, and being gifts he cannot now be credited for them upon this accounting as for moneys expended for the benefit of the minor.

• Decree to be entered in accordance with foregoing opinion.