Case Name: SUCCESSION of Mildred Margaret MILLER
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1981-03-02
Citations: 405 So. 2d 812
Docket Number: No. 66853
Parties: SUCCESSION of Mildred Margaret MILLER.
Judges: DIXON, C. J., concurs with reasons.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 405
Pages: 812–825

Head Matter:
SUCCESSION of Mildred Margaret MILLER.
No. 66853.
Supreme Court of Louisiana.
March 2, 1981.
Dissenting Opinion April 14, 1981.
On Rehearing Sept. 28, 1981.
Rehearing Denied Nov. 16, 1981.
William J. Wegmann, William J. Weg-mann, Jr., New Orleans, for defendant-applicant.
Derbes & Derbes, Jorda S. Derbes, Peter Derbes, New Orleans, for respondents.

Opinion:
LEMMON, Justice.
This is a contest between the administra-trix of decedent's succession and decedent's cousin, Mrs. Albertha Meyer, who claims the ownership of certain bearer bonds and cash listed in the succession inventory. Mrs. Meyer contends she is the owner of the property by virtue of an inter vivos manual donation. The issue is whether decedent made a valid manual donation.
After a hearing on Mrs. Meyer's motion to traverse the inventory, the trial court held the bonds and cash were properly included in the succession inventory, and the court of appeal affirmed. 378 So.2d 543. We granted Mrs. Meyer's application to review these rulings. 381 So.2d 1231 (La. 1980).
Decedent acquired the bearer bonds about two years before she died, but the bonds were in Mrs. Meyer's possession at the time of decedent's death. About four months before her death decedent opened a joint savings account in the name of "Mildred M. Miller or Mrs. Albertha S. Meyer" and deposited into the account the sum of $7,599.72, which was the exact amount she had just received upon closing a personal savings account in her name only. The new joint account was designated as "payable to either or survivor". Mrs. Meyer withdrew the funds from the joint account the day before decedent died.
I.
As to the cash withdrawn from the savings account, Mrs. Meyer testified that decedent, when opening the joint account, said "Albertha, I want you to have that", but she told decedent the money was hers (decedent's) as long as she lived. Decedent admittedly received the interest paid on the money in the account.
Mrs. Meyer further testified that decedent, upon entering the hospital seven days before her death, realized the impending death and told her to take the money out of the homestead. Mrs. Meyer withdrew the money the day before decedent died.
A notarial act is required for the valid donation inter vivos of an incorporeal movable. C.C. art. 1536. However, the manual gift of a corporeal movable, accompanied by real delivery, is not subject to any formality. It is therefore evident that the savings account (an incorporeal movable) was not subject to manual gift, but the cash withdrawn from the account (a corporeal movable) could be subject to manual gift.
Mrs. Meyer relies on the decision in Succ. of Gorman, 209 La. 1092, 26 So.2d 150 (La. 1946), which held that in order to complete a manual gift it suffices that the will of the donor to give a corporeal movable operate simultaneously with the possession of the movable by the donee. The court noted that the ceremony of the donor's handing the property to the donee was an unnecessary formality.
The critical inquiry in the present case is whether the record establishes that decedent maintained an intention to donate the funds to Mrs. Meyer at a time when Mrs. Meyer possessed the funds in a form susceptible of manual gift.
Decedent expressed her unqualified intent that Mrs. Meyer have access to the funds by transferring them from an individual account to a joint account. According to Mrs. Meyer's testimony, decedent thereafter stated her desire for Mrs. Meyer to have the funds. Finally, by will executed three months before her death decedent expressly stated her desire for Mrs. Meyer to have everything she owned, stating her love for her cousin and her undying gratitude for the care and comfort received from her.
Seven days before her death decedent had a cerebral vascular attack and was taken to the hospital unconscious by Mrs. Meyer, who signed an acknowledgment of financial responsibility. She was semi-comatose and unable to speak or to be understood most of the time thereafter until her death, and thus she could not reiterate her intention to give Mrs. Meyer the funds at any time after the funds were reduced to cash. However, under all the indicia of donative intent recited above, it is more probable than not that the unlimited dona-tive intent previously displayed by decedent continued after the account was converted to cash and until her death.
Accordingly, we hold that although decedent did not hand over the funds in cash to Mrs. Meyer and did not affirmatively demonstrate donative intent after the funds were converted to cash, Mrs. Meyer's possession of the cash, in accordance with decedent's express wishes, operated simultaneously with decedent's continuing will to accomplish a donation inter vivos.
II.
As to the bearer bonds, Mrs. Meyer testified that decedent gave her the bonds as a gift immediately after the acquisition and turned over possession to her. She admitted, however, that whenever interest was paid, she gave the coupons to decedent. She also admitted decedent had a room in her (Mrs. Meyer's) house, where decedent kept "a lot of stuff".
Bearer bonds are subject to a manual gift. Succ. of McCrocklin, 242 La. 404, 137 So.2d 274 (La.1961); Succ. of Moore, 40 La.Ann. 531, 4 So. 460 (La.1888). Such bonds are negotiated by delivery to the donee. While the obligation represented by the bond is an incorporeal movable, the document itself is a corporeal movable and is subject to a manual donation. L. Oppenheim, The Donation Inter Vivos, 43 Tul.L. Rev., 731 (1969).
III.
Significantly, the trial judge, in reasons for judgment, apparently accepted Mrs. Meyer's testimony, which although self-serving was consistent with decedent's documented actions and with the intent expressed in decedent's formally invalid will. The trial judge rejected Mrs. Meyer's claim solely because the facts related by her did not in his opinion satisfy the legal requirements for a valid donation.
Accepting the factual testimony of Mrs. Meyer and the corroborating circumstances of this case, we hold that the inter vivos donations of the bearer bonds and the cash were valid.
Accordingly, the judgments of the courts below are reversed, and it is now ordered that judgment be rendered in favor of Mrs. Albertha S. Meyer, maintaining her opposition to the inclusion in the Succession of Mildred Margaret Miller of $7,599.72 in cash and six Schwegmann Bros. Giant Supermarket bonds totaling $4,500.00. Costs in all courts are assessed against the succession.
DIXON, C. J., concurs with reasons.
CALOGERO and WATSON, JJ., dissent.
DENNIS, J., dissents with reasons.
. Decedent executed a last will and testament, three months before her death, leaving all of her property to Mrs. Meyer, but the court de-dined to probate the will because it was invalid for insufficiencies of form.
. Arguably Mrs. Meyer withdrew the funds under the authority previously expressed by the donor, just as the donee in the Gorman case withdrew the funds under the authority of a power of attorney previously executed by the donor.