Court Opinion

ID: 9885178
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 03:35:19.73674+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:45.166942
License: Public Domain

Heher, J.
(dissenting). The judgment of my colleagues proceeds on the hypothesis of a rebuttable- presumption, not of a resulting trust, but rather of a gift- of/the subject matter *381of the transfer, for it is held that the “facts of the relationship between” the deceased and his mother “could well justify a'finding that she was in fact a natural object of her son’s bounty,” and “their relationship was such that but for other evidence overcoming the inference, the probability might well be inferred that Morris did intend a gift of the properties to Yetta.”
But with this assessment of the proofs I am unable to agree. I concur in the findings of Judge Jayne for the Appellate Division.
We enter into this inquiry guided by this basic principle: Even though the grantee is so related to the payor as to be the natural object of his bounty, parol evidence is admissible to rebut the presumption of a gift and to show that a trust was intended; and the intention that the grantee should not have the beneficial interest in the property may appear from the circumstances at the time of the purchase or it may appear from the “subsequent conduct of the parties,” and thus automatically a resulting trust is created. Scott on Trusts, section 443.
I am convinced that Morris had in view the economic security of his widowed and infirm mother in case he predeceased her, which was the event. If she survived him, she would have financial security; if she predeceased him, her goods and property would be his. And it may well be that, notwithstanding her advanced years and infirmities and the law of probability, he was not reckoning with what ordinarily would be deemed a remote chance of her survivorship. We do not know. Morris died July 30, 1943, less than a year and a half after the conveyance to his mother of 209 and 214 Carroll Street, by several deeds some four months apart. In this regard, the second conveyance characterizes the first. The payments on the purchase price came in each case from Yetta’s savings account in the United States Trust Company, opened June 7, 1934, with a deposit of $5,000 transferred by Morris from his own savings account in that institution, more than five years before the payment of the mortgage on *38251 Carroll Street. The economic adversity of the early 1930’s no doubt developed concern for his mother’s security. And his mother was troubled. Caroline acknowledged on the witness stand that Morris “gave” his mother “$5,000 to make her happy.” There was a conveyance to Morris’ wife, Caroline, at the same time. 208 Carroll Street was acquired in Caroline’s name in November 1941, largely through money withdrawn from their joint bank account; and Morris and Caroline held an estate by the entirety in 51 Carroll Street, where they lived and conducted their joint hairdressing and barbering business.
It is not important that Morris withdrew the accruing interest credits from his mother’s bank account. The first withdrawal was made by Yetta; but she was afflicted with a serious progressive disease and, moreover, unversed in the ways of business, and it is but reasonable to suppose that her power of attorney to Morris was intended to serve her convenience. The large withdrawals to finance the purchase of the properties were all made by her.
But it is of prime if not controlling significance, I would suggest, that Caroline, as her husband’s executrix, omitted 209 and 214 Carroll Street from her sworn return of the deceased’s property and estate to the State Inheritance Tax Department. In the six and a half years intervening between Morris’ death and his mother’s, Caroline made no move to establish Yetta’s trusteeship now asserted; and there was no action after Yetta’s death until her executor brought this suit to foreclose the mortgage of record against 51 Carroll Street, when by counterclaim she pleaded the resulting trust of which enforcement is now sought.
It will not do to treat as indicia of dominion and control significant of beneficial ownership of the properties the ministrations of the son to his mother.
The burden is Caroline’s to sustain the cause of action pleaded in the counterclaim; and in this, I submit, she has failed. The proofs are not sufficient to override the solemn record evidence of a transfer of ownership in all seeming *383as a gift rather than a resulting trust. The normal implication of the transaction has not been overturned. I would refer to the observations of Professor Scott on the onus and standard of proof. Section 443, cited supra. It is to be presumed that Yetta, conscious of her ownership of the lands, designed their devolution according to the law governing intestacy.
I would affirm the judgment of the Appellate Division.
For reversal — Chief Justice Yanderbo.lt, and Justices Oliphant, Wacheneeld, Burling, Jacobs and Brennan— 6.
For affirmance — Justice Heher — 1.