Court Opinion

ID: 9761514
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:44:20.766788+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:24.067824
License: Public Domain

NIX, Justice,
concurring.
I am in full accord with the result reached by the Opinion of the Court but wish to indicate that I do not accept the Opinion’s implication that the result would have been otherwise had the marriage preceded the creation of the joint tenancy. Today’s Opinion holds that a pre-marital creation of a joint tenancy does not create any rights in favor of a *460person who subsequently marries one of the joint tenants, concerning the property which is the subject of the joint tenancy.
The question of whether the surviving spouse may elect against a joint tenancy created during marriage by the deceased spouse and a third party was explicitly reserved by this Court in Righter v. Righter, 442 Pa. 428, 275 A.2d 4 (1971). Although that Court indicated that Hines Estate, 44 Pa.D.&C.2d 401, 409 (1968) decided this issue, the discussion in Hines is devoid of authority or analysis and is thus neither binding nor an impressive precedent.