Opinion ID: 1493753
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Estate of Presgrave decision.

Text: In Estate of Presgrave v. Stephens, 529 A.2d 274, 280 (D.C.1987), relied upon by the majority, a divided court, over a powerful dissent by Judge Mack, held that on the facts before the court, the trial judge's finding that the decedent's creation of an either or account in her name and in the name of her nephew, subject to the order of either or the survivor, 529 A.2d at 275, constituted an inter vivos gift of an interest in the account and the creation of a right of survivorship, and that the nephew was entitled to the proceeds of the account upon the decedent's death. The court did not address the problem raised by the decedent's retention, after the creation of the account, of control over the money thereincontrol that was identical to the nephew's controlnor did it deal with the requirement that in order to be effective, a gift inter vivos must be absolute and irrevocable: Questions which merely lurk in the record, neither brought to the attention of the court nor ruled upon, are not to be considered as having been so decided as to constitute precedents. Webster v. Fall, 266 U.S. 507, 511, 45 S.Ct. 148, 69 L.Ed. 411 (1925); see also District of Columbia v. Sierra Club, 670 A.2d 354, 360 (D.C.1996). Be that as it may, Estate of Presgrave is distinguishable from the present case in significant respects. First, there was testimony in Estate of Presgrave, credited by the trial judge, that the decedent wanted her nephew to use some of the money during her lifetime for his own personal use, [ a ] nd after she passed away she wanted him to have that account.  Estate of Presgrave, 529 A.2d at 280 (emphasis added). This testimony was consistent with the provision in the account that the funds contained therein were subject to the order, inter alia, of the survivor. [14] There was no such testimony in the present case. Second, unlike the decedent in Estate of Presgrave, Mrs. Walker made it absolutely clear that she did not equate the placing of a person's name on a joint account with a gift to that person. She did so by proposing that the assistant branch manager of the bank i.e., an individual whom the decedent plainly did not intend to be the recipient of a gift of approximately $180,000be named a co-owner of the joint account. There was no comparable testimony in Estate of Presgrave. The Presgrave case is, for the reasons stated, distinguishable from the present one, and does not require reversal here. [15]