Opinion ID: 2195589
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Interest of Johnson

Text: Having determined that the MSDW Active Assets Account is an account within the purview of the MPAA, and that MSDW falls within the ambit of a financial institution pursuant to the broad definition of financial institution contained in the MPAA, we must now determine Daughter's present interest in the account and whether the account funds are available to satisfy the Judgment of DL & F. Joint accounts are occasionally referred to as a poor man's will. In re Ingels' Estate, 372 Pa. 171, 92 A.2d 881 (1952). See also Robinson v. Delfino, 710 A.2d 154 (R.I.1998) (joint bank accounts often referred to as poor man's will and are most often employed by persons with small estates); Blanchette v. Blanchette, 362 Mass. 518, 287 N.E.2d 459 (1972) (joint stock account). This is because, pursuant to the Probate Code, [a]ny sum remaining on deposit at the death of a party to a joint account belongs to the surviving party or parties as against the estate of the decedent unless there is clear and convincing evidence of a different intent at the time the account is created. 20 Pa.C.S. § 6304(a). Thus, joint accounts provide a simple and inexpensive method of passing funds in the account from a deceased joint owner to the surviving joint owner, avoiding the necessity of probate proceedings. However, that utility is lost if, during the lifetime of the joint depositors, the funds on deposit can be reached by a judgment creditor of either party. If the creator of the joint account, whose intent is usually testamentary in nature, could be impoverished by the acts of the joint tenant over which the creator has no control, such as attempts of the other joint tenant or her creditors to reach the funds, there is great risk to the creator of the joint account. It may be these evils that Section 6303(a), 20 Pa.C.S. § 6303(a), was intended to limit, lending stability and security to the creation of joint bank accounts. It is axiomatic that a judgment attaches only to the interest that the judgment debtor has in the property, and the judgment cannot attach to any greater interest than either the debtor herself has, or, in the exercise of her rights, could have voluntarily transferred. Overbrook Heights Bldg. & Loan Ass'n v. Wilson, 333 Pa. 449, 5 A.2d 529 (1939); Ellwanger v. Moore, 206 Pa. 234, 55 A. 966 (1903). Therefore, it is paramount to the relief sought by DL & F that Daughter be vested with an ownership interest in the Active Assets account. The Pennsylvania legislature enacted the MPAA on the assumption that a person who deposits funds in a multiple-party account normally does not intend to make an irrevocable gift of all or any part of the funds represented by the deposit. Rather, he [or she] usually intends no present change of beneficial ownership. Official Comment to 20 Pa.C.S. § 6303. Section 6303(a) is fundamental to the resolution of the issue at hand and states, in pertinent part, that [a] joint account belongs, during the lifetime of all parties, to the parties in proportion to the net contributions by each to the sum on deposit, unless there is clear and convincing evidence of a different intent. 20 Pa.C.S. § 6303(a). This Section clearly sets forth the ownership rights to the assets of the joint account during the lifetime of the parties, and the General Assembly did not intend to allow a holder of an interest in a joint account to defeat the ownership rights of other joint owners with a unilateral act. Absent an inter vivos gift by Libros, Daughter had no ownership interest at the time that DL & F sought to satisfy its judgment; at most she had a mere expectation of a right of survivorship. In the instant matter, Libros produced significant and compelling evidence in her own testimony and that of her account executive that the transfer was effectuated as a convenience to herself and without the intent to make an inter vivos gift. This evidence was unrebutted and is consistent with the presumption supplied in the comments to Section 6303 of the MPAA that state: The theory of these sections is that the basic relationship of the parties is that of individual ownership of values attributable to their respective deposits and withdrawals; the right of survivorship which attaches unless negated by the form of the account really is a right to the values theretofore owned by another which the survivor receives for the first time at the death of the owner. That is to say, the account operates as a valid disposition at death rather than as a present joint tenancy. Official Comment to 20 Pa.C.S. § 6303 (emphasis added).