Case Title: Jones v. Jones

Citation: 

Docket Number: 

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 1982-11-19T00:00:00Z

Document:
423 So. 2d 205 (1982)
Dorothy Mae JONES, as Administratrix of the Estate of Charles C. Jones
v.
Willie JONES, et al.
81-814.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
November 19, 1982.
Joseph W. Adams, Birmingham, for appellant.
Marcus A. Hall of Nichols & Hall, Birmingham, for appellees.
JONES, Justice.
This appeal was taken from a judgment in an interpleader action filed by the First National Bank of Birmingham, seeking instructions as to the proper disbursement of the sum of $20,509.94.
Claimants to the fund were Dorothy Mae Jones, as administratrix of the estate of Charles C. Jones, deceased, and Willie Jones, as the alleged survivor of a joint account with right of survivorship. At the time of the death of Charles C. Jones, the money was on deposit in a First National savings account under the names of Charles C. Jones and Willie Jones.
The trial court ordered that the assets be paid to Willie Jones. From a denial of a post-judgment motion for rehearing and reconsideration, Dorothy Mae Jones appeals.
We affirm.
In 1978, Johnnie Jones, father of Charles, opened a savings account with the First National Bank of Birmingham in the names of Johnnie Jones and Charles C. Jones. The deposit contract, signed by Johnnie and Charles C. Jones, as well as by a bank representative, read as follows:
Subsequent to its inception, Johnnie made deposits into and withdrawals from the account, while Charles made neither. Johnnie Jones died on March 10, 1980. Thereafter, on March 14, 1980, Charles C. Jones and his cousin Willie Jones went to the First National Bank offices, where, along with a bank representative, they each signed a signature card providing for a joint account in both their names with right *206 of survivorship, using the same contract form cited above. Charles made withdrawals from the account on occasions, but made no deposits. Willie made no deposits into or withdrawals from the account.
Charles died on February 26, 1981. On March 2, 1981, Willie Jones made demand upon the bank for the deposited monies. In the absence of a passbook, the bank refused to release the amount to Willie without an indemnifying bond. Shortly thereafter, Dorothy Mae Jones, as administratrix of the estate of Charles C. Jones, submitted to the bank her demand for the fund. At this point, the bank filed its interpleader petition.
Two sections of the Alabama Code, one section having superseded the other on May 28, 1980, are relevant to our analysis, and are as follows:
*207 Based upon these two code sections, the trial judge determined that Willie Jones was the proper recipient of the funds in question. We quote pertinent portions of the final judgment:
We hold that the proper point of inquiry is the date on which the account of Charles C. Jones and Willie Jones was created. At that time, and under § 5-1-25, then in effect, Willie Jones acquired immediate rights, albeit along with Charles C. Jones, to the monies in the account. Thereafter, pursuant to § 5-1A-8, these rights were preserved. As stated in Harris v. Dial, 398 So. 2d 679, 681 (Ala.1981):
In conclusion, we make an additional observation respecting the Appellant's assertion that § 5-5A-41 vested the bank with discretion to pay (i.e., "may be paid by the bank") to the survivor of the joint account, and that when the bank has exercised that discretion in favor of withholding payment, the ownership of the account is to be determined by common law principles.
Even assuming the application of § 5-5A-41, we do not agree with this contention. Admittedly, the statute is drafted in terms which exempt the bank from liability for its payment of a joint account to the survivor. But the statute does not empower the bank to determine ownership of a joint account in its depository. Rather, title is determined in accordance with the intentions of the parties, "stated in the instrument creating such tenancy," pursuant to § 35-4-7. When § 5-5A-41 superseded § 5-1-25, effective May 28, 1980, the survivorship between joint tenants provisions of § 35-4-7, which applies to personal as well as real property, remained fully operative. First National Bank v. Lawrence, 212 Ala. 45, 101 So. 663 (1924).
*208 This current survivorship statute (passed originally in 1852 and last amended in 1951) would have controlled this case had the joint account in question been created on or after May 28, 1980. Stated otherwise, if the bank elected to pay the joint account to Willie Jones after the death of Charles C. Jones, not only would the bank have been exempt from liability for such payment, pursuant to § 5-5A-41, but § 35-4-7 would have vested title to the account in Willie Jones.
AFFIRMED.
TORBERT, C.J., and MADDOX, SHORES and BEATTY, JJ., concur.