Court Opinion

ID: 9756381
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 21:26:09.269388+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:20.751779
License: Public Domain

Wendell L. Griffen, Judge, dissenting. The majority affirms the trial court’s decision that the phrases “checking and savings account” and “remainder of my savings and checking” in a holographic will included $226,000 in cash that was stored in the testator’s safe-deposit box. I would reverse because those phrases can only be reasonably interpreted to dispose of the contents of the testator’s banking accounts and because the trial court’s interpretation of the provisions of the will runs contrary to Arkansas law defining “safe-deposit box” and “account.” The testator had a checking account valued at $4,022.70, and a savings account with the same bank, valued at $201,203.63. She also had a safe-deposit box at that bank, in which she kept $226,000 in cash. Her holographic will stated, in part: “I give and bequeath my savings and checking account in the First Team Bank in Heber Springs to the Lost Cherokee of Arkansas and Missouri, Inc.” (Emphasis added.) In a subsequent paragraph, the testator bequeathed “the remainder of my savings and checking to the Native American Indians.” (Emphasis added.) The trial court determined that the testator meant for cash in the safe-deposit box to be included as part of her “savings” and did not intend for the word “savings” to refer only to “accounts.” I disagree. Although the testator in this case did not use the word “account” in the residual clause granting the remainder of her “savings and checking” to appellee, she did use the word “account” in the first clause. Inexplicably, the trial court and the majority concluded that appellee is the intended beneficiary under the residual clause by referring back to the previous bequest that specifically names appellee, but failed to refer back to the same bequest to determine what is meant by the phrase “savings and checking” in the residual clause. Thus, the only reasonable interpretation is that the phrase “savings and checking” in the residual clause refers back to the phrase “savings and checking account” in the prior clause ■ — ■ otherwise the phrase “savings and checking” in the residual clause remains unidentified or unspecified. In the absence of any extrinsic evidence supporting that the testator considered the cash in her safe-deposit box to be part of her “savings,” and because there appears to be no Arkansas case law on point, this court should rely on the terms “account” and “safe-deposit box” as defined under Arkansas law — and under Arkansas law, the former does not encompass the latter. “Accounts” and “safe-deposit boxes” are different creatures under Arkansas law, and a different relationship arises between the bank and its customer with regard to each. A “safe-deposit box” means a safe, box, or other receptacle for the safekeeping of property that is located on a bank’s premises and leased by the bank to a lessee. See Ark. Code Ann. § 23-45-102(a)(37) (Supp. 2007). The type of relationship created by the leasing of a safe-deposit box is a mutual bailment. See Farmers Bank of Greenwood v. Perry, 301 Ark. 547, 787 S.W.2d 645 (1990). By contrast, an “account” is any deposit or credit account with a bank, including a demand, time, savings, passbook, share draft, or like account, other than an account evidenced by a certificate of deposit. See Ark. Code Ann. § 4-4-104(a)(l) (Supp. 2007). (Emphasis added.) Depositing money into an account creates a debtor-creditor relationship between the bank and the customer, and title to the money in the account passes to the bank, to mix with the use of its own funds. See Polk v. Garrison, 162 Ark. 624, 258 S.W. 631 (1924); Lasley v. Bank of Ne. Ark., 4 Ark. App. 42, 627 S.W.2d 261 (1982). Thus, a safe-deposit box is not an “account” under Arkansas law because it is not “like” a deposit or savings account, or any other type of account included in the definition of “account.” See, e.g., In Re Schmidt’s Estate, 134 A.2d 810 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 1957) (determining that the phrase “any cash in any bank account or bank accounts” as used in a will did not include $24,000 cash held in the testator’s safe-deposit box). Simply put, because the will in this case did not dispose of the contents of the safe-deposit box, appellants, as the intestate heirs, are entitled to the cash contained in the box. See Ark. Code Ann. § 28-26-103 (Repl. 2004). Accordingly, I would reverse the trial court’s order. I am authorized to state that Chief Judge Pittman joins this dissent.