Case Title: Crawford v. McGraw

Citation: 61 So. 2d 484

Docket Number: 

State: florida

Court: Florida Supreme Court

Date: 1952-11-21T00:00:00Z

Document:
61 So. 2d 484 (1952)
CRAWFORD
v.
McGRAW et al.

Supreme Court of Florida, Division B.
November 21, 1952.
*485 J.T.G. Crawford (of Crawford & May), Jacksonville, for appellant.
Marks, Gray, Yates & Conroy, Jacksonville, for appellees.
DREW, Justice.
J.T.G. Crawford, as Executor of the last will and testament of Minnie M. Conroy, filed a petition for declaratory decree against Nell L. McGraw and The Barnett National Bank of Jacksonville for the purpose of securing a judicial determination of the legal status of a bank account standing in the name of Mrs. F.P. Conroy or Nell L. McGraw, payable to either or the survivor. (Mrs. F.P. Conroy and Minnie M. Conroy were one and the same person), The two defendants below (appellees here) answered and a stipulation was entered into between the parties as follows:
So that the whole picture may be clearly understood, we think it pertinent to set out verbatim the savings account pass book and signature card referred to in paragraph 12 of the stipulation. They are as follows:
Under the facts agreed to in the foregoing stipulation and by virtue of the instruments consisting of the pass book, the signature card and the bank's ledger sheet, was a joint estate with the right of survivorship created in the monies on deposit in said account?
The lower court held that under the facts herein related, a joint estate with the right of survivorship was created and that the monies remaining in said account at the time of the death of Minnie M. Conroy were not a part of her estate. The decree further directed the appellee Bank to pay said amount to the appellee Nell L. McGraw.
This Court, in the cases of Cerny v. Cerny, 152 Fla. 333, 11 So. 2d 777; Crabtree v. Garcia, Fla., 43 So. 2d 466, and Hagerty v. Hagerty, Fla., 52 So. 2d 432, has held that the opening of a joint bank account with the intention of creating a right of survivorship is a means of creating a right joint estate in personal property. See also Lynch v. Murray, 5 Cir., 139 F.2d 649. The real question here is whether, in view of Section 689.15, F.S.A., the means employed, namely the various instruments referred to in the stipulation and copied here, meet the requirement of the statute that the "instrument" creating the estate expressly provides for a right of survivorship.
*488 In Crabtree v. Garcia, supra, [43 So. 2d 466], the "depository agreement" therein referred to was exactly the same as the "signature card" referred to in this record, except that in the Garcia case the words "payable to either or the survivor" were added. In the Garcia case, supra, both the pass book and the bank ledger contain the language "payable to either or the survivor" and in both the Garcia case and this case it was undisputed that the intention of the deceased and the co-depositor was to establish a joint account with the right of survivorship. All of the instruments were a part of the same transaction and must be construed together. When that is done, there is no particular significance to the omission of the words "payable to either or the survivor" from the signature card. The admitted facts in the stipulation and the instruments herein referred to satisfy us that a joint estate with the right of survivorship was created. We hold that the language of Mr. Justice Terrell in the Garcia case, supra, viz.: "We think, however, that the depository agreement, the savings bank book and the ledger sheet established a contract whereby the survivor, Doris B. Garcia, is entitled to ownership of the joint account on the death of her mother. It also shows that it was the intention of the parties to create a survivorship in the manner provided by Section 689.15, F.S.A." (Emphasis supplied), is controlling in this case and that the lower court was without error.
Affirmed.
SEBRING, C.J., and ROBERTS and MATHEWS, JJ., concur.