Case ID: mass_164/html/0583-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Knowlton, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Amos Noyes & another, executors, vs. Institution for Savings in Newburyport & another.
    Essex.
    November 6, 1895.
    November 27, 1895.
    Present: Field, C. J., Holmes, Knowlton, Morton, & Lathbop, JJ.
    
      Savings Bank Book— Title to Deposit.
    
    If A. deposits in a savings bank a sum of money and keeps in his possession during his life the deposit-book, which is found by his executors among his effects after his decease and the account in which is headed “ A. and B., Newburyport, payable to either or survivor,” and it appears that the book was never in the possession of B. and that he had no knowledge of the deposit until after the death of A., the deposit remains the property of A.
    Contract, to recover a deposit in the defendant bank by the executors of the will of Annie M. Pike. Mary L. Hewett intervened as a claimant of the fund under St. 1894, e. 317, § 33. Trial in this court, before Lathrop, J., who found for the plaintiffs for the balance of the amount of the deposit and accrued interest, and, at the request of the claimant, reported the case for the determination of the full court. If the finding was not warranted, a new trial was to be granted; otherwise, judgment was to be entered for the plaintiffs on the finding. The facts appear in the opinion.
    
      H. P. Moulton, for the claimant.
    
      A. Noyes, for the plaintiffs.
   Knowlton, J.

The plaintiffs’ testatrix, Annie M. Pike, deposited in the defendant savings bank the money for which this suit is brought, and kept in her possession during her life the deposit-book, which was found by the plaintiffs among, her effects after her death. The account in the book was headed, “ Annie M. Pike and Mary L. Hewetfc, Newburyport, payable to either or survivor.” It appears that the book was never in the possession of the claimant, and that she had no knowledge of the deposit until after the death of the testatrix. Upon these facts, it was rightly held that the deposit remains the property of the original depositor, and that the plaintiffs are entitled to recover. This is settled by a series of decisions in this Commonwealth as well as elsewhere. Brabrook v. Boston Five Cents Savings Bank, 104 Mass. 228. Ide v. Pierce, 134 Mass. 260. Sherman v. New Bedford Five Cents Savings Bank, 138 Mass. 581, 582. Nutt v. Morse, 142 Mass. 1. Parkman v. Suffolk Savings Bank, 151 Mass. 218. Booth v. Bristol County Savings Bank, 162 Mass. 455, 457. Judgment on the finding.