Opinion ID: 1743523
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: II: Did the chancellor err in finding a valid gift inter vivos?

Text: Our leading case on gifts inter vivos is Matter of Collier, 381 So.2d 1338 (Miss. 1980). When it is shown that one party has title to certain property and another party claims that property by virtue of a gift from the owner, the party asserting the gift bears the burden of proof; the quantum of proof is clear and satisfactory proof. 381 So.2d at 1341. In order for there to be a valid gift inter vivos the following elements must be present: (1) a donor competent to make a gift, (2) a voluntary act of the donor with donative intent, (3) the gift must be complete with nothing else to be done, (4) there must be delivery to the donee, and (5) the gift must be irrevocable. See, e.g., Matter of Collier, 381 So.2d at 1340; Thomas v. Eubanks, 358 So.2d 709 (Miss. 1978); Longtin v. Witcher, 352 So.2d 808 (Miss. 1977). In the present case, the decisive issue is whether or not the last of these requisites was fulfilled. There is dispute as to the degree of control Mrs. Brasell retained over the silverware in the months before her death. Lorene Perkins, the maid, testified that Mrs. Brasell gave the silverware to Michelle, but on cross she gave testimony indicating that when the elder Brasells went to Florida they customarily left the silverware at Michelle's house. Therefore the maid's testimony did not prove that Mrs. Brasell gave the silverware to Michelle irrevocably in the sense of a gift. Other testimony on this issue was given by Mike Brasell. He testified that he did not consider the silver part of his mother's estate because mother's wishes were to give it to my daughter Michelle. She gave it to my daughter Michelle. However, he also said that up until the time mother died, that silverware was in my house, but mother had control over it... . I felt like the silver belonged to my daughter, but I had enough respect for my mother that I would do whatever she told me to do with it. Thus, the only testimony given about the silverware, did not establish by clear or convincing evidence or otherwise that Mrs. Brasell had relinquished control over the silverware and made the gift irrevocable. Since that is an indispensible element of a gift inter vivos, the chancellor was manifestly wrong in finding that Mrs. Brasell had made that silverware the subject of a gift to Michelle before her death. The silver should have been made a part of the inventory of Mrs. Brasell's estate.