Opinion ID: 2363170
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: safe deposit box

Text: Mr. Kulbeth claims in his fourth point of error that the contents of the safe deposit box belong to the estate of Ivan C. Wright. Mr. Wright bequeathed Ms. Purdom $100,000.00 in his will. Mr. Kulbeth now asserts that Mr. Wright's will provision controverts the joint tenancy with right of survivorship clause that he executed with Ms. Purdom relating to the contents of the safe deposit box. In Newton County v. Davison, 289 Ark. 109, 709 S.W.2d 810 (1986), we announced that it was our intention to: ... require an affirmative showing that the owner of a lock box intended to give the contents of the lock box to another. Such an intention cannot be demonstrated without a specific written reference to the disposition of the contents of a lock box and is not indicated by an agreement only to rent the box in two or more names with a right of survivorship. We held in Newton that the agreement between the parties as to their lease of a safe deposit box as joint tenants with right of survivorship was only for the rental of the safe deposit box and not for the disposition of its contents. In that case, the only reference to the joint tenancy agreement was the typewritten words joint tenancy with right of survivorship after the names of the lessees of the safe deposit box. To the contrary, the joint tenancy provision in this case states as follows: