Court Opinion

ID: 9844627
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:05:43.622847+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:39.235518
License: Public Domain

YOUNG and BELLWOOD, District Judges
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
We concur with the majority opinion that no valid gift or transfer of the land sale contracts and the promissory note was made by the decedent to appellants by virtue of the *296joint account agreement or otherwise. The contracts and promissory note are properly to be distributed as part of decedent’s estate, and the judgment for the plaintiff-administrator should be, to that extent, affirmed.
■ We are, however, unable to agree with the majority opinion as regards the bank account which is the subject of the joint-account-with-right-o f-survivorship agreement. In our opinion, the judgment for the plaintiff-administrator should be, to that extent, reversed, and for two reasons: First, the evidence as disclosed by the record clearly does not support the conclusion that the account in question was opened for business convenience. Second, the effect of the decision of the majority is to create further uncertainty as to the effect of joint-and-survivorship bank accounts on the death of an owner-depositor.
It must be recognized that the joint account agreement, with right of survivorship, such as we find in this case, and its legal effect, have been a subject of discussion among almost all of the courts in the United States where such agreements are used. A recognized legal theory to justify the transfer of funds caused by such arrangements has not been agreed upon by the courts, yet with few exceptions most of the courts have agreed thát such accounts will transfer an interest in funds on deposit at the time of the depositor’s death. In the cases we find the courts relying upon theories of contract, trust, joint tenancy, and gift. The ultimate conclusion that could be drawn from all of these cases is aptly expressed by Donald Kepner in a Law Review article entitled “Joint and Survivorship Bank Account — a concept without a name”, found in the California Law Review, winter 1953-1954, vol. 41, No. 4. On page 635 of said Law Review Professor Kepner summarizes the law:
“Throughout this discussion there have been repeated references to the fact that the joint accounts do not fit into any of the common law categories for transferring property. The joint bank account does not qualify as a common law gift, because the donor does not surrender dominion. It is not a trust, because there is no intention on the part of the depositor to enter into such relationship. Neither is it a common law joint tenancy, because the four unities essential for creating this joint interest are lacking. While the parties may enter into a contract providing for the payment of the funds, the contract itself does not operate as a conveyance of the funds from one joint payee to the other joint payee. It is not a will, because it does not comply with the statutory formalities.
“The joint and survivorship bank account transaction is a combination of all of the methods of transferring property listed in the preceding paragraphs. It partakes of the nature of a.gift be*297cause it is gratuitous. It is like a will in that the beneficiary is not certain of the amount of the donation until the depositor’s death. It is similar to a joint tenancy because of the creation of joint interests. It has some of the characteristics of a revocable trust. Since the joint account combines in part the features of gifts, wills, joint tenancies and revocable trusts it is a new concept possessing independent characteristics of its own. It should be recognized as such.”
As pointed out by the majority, Idaho has joined that group of states which hold that such an agreement as we have here may effect a gift:
“Our statute, abrogating the common law rule of joint tenancy, does not abolish such tenancy. It merely declares that such an interest is in common ‘unless declared in its creation to be a joint interest, ***/*** Here the tenancy was created by a written agreement in which the parties declared the tenancy to be joint. Thus a valid gift of a joint interest in the account, with right of Survivorship, was made and effectively delivered to the plaintiff at the time the account was created, (emphasis supplied) and the balance in the account at the time of Cecil’s death was and is the property of the plaintiff. * * '* ” Gray v. Gray, 78 Idaho 439, 304 P.2d 650, 654.
While we may not have a true gift inte? vivos (and none is necessary), this Court has recognized that it is a gratuitous transfer of the property of the owning depositor.
It appears to us that the ruling of the majority in this case will nullify the Gray case, and is tantamount to holding that the creation of a joint account, with right of survivorship, in the manner selected by the decedent is without force or effect. The majority rule would permit such an act to be challenged in virtually every instance; the anomaly is born that the survivor must prove the decedent did precisely what he unequivocally stated in writing that he did. The bank card, or joint account agreement, states that the funds deposited with the bank “shall be owned by (the parties to the joint account) jointly, with the right of survivor-ship, and be subject to the order or receipt of either of them or the survivor of them * * -phe language is clear, without ambiguity, unequivocal. These words can be, and we believe are, clearly understood or understandable by the public. If we are to give any effect to these accounts, why should this clearly expressed intention be ignored ?
The depositor is not required to open this type of account. He can open an agency account, with no provision for survivorship, which is precisely what the depositor did with one account in Shurrum v. Watts, 80 Idaho 44, 324 P.2d 380, where the survivor-ship provision was stricken-by-the depositor. *298He can open a trust account if he wishes, or he can do what the decedent did here in 1950 when he executed a “power of attorney” card at the same bank, permitting appellant Walter Griffiths, Jr., to withdraw funds “until further notice.”
The depositing public should know with a reasonable degree of certainty what effect the opening of such an account will have, if we are to allow it to have any effect at all. The execution of a joint account agreement, such as we are here concerned with, should not be an invitation to litigation upon death of one of the parties. A written instrument, admittedly executed by the decedent, unequivocal in its provisions, should be, in itself, after the death of the depositor conclusive evidence of an intent by the original owner of the funds to make a valid transfer of a joint interest in the account, with right of survivorship, at the time of the creation of the account, unless the instrument is impeached for reasons known to and approved by the law. In this case there is no question of fraud, undue influence, duress, coercion, incompetence or unsound mind, or mistake. The burden of proof should be upon him who seeks to impeach. The presumption which is suggested here would, of course, apply only to the issue of ownership at the time of the death of the original owner-depositor, and would not apply to the case where survivorship provision is absent, or to the situation where a dispute over ownership of the funds arises during the lifetime of the parties to the joint and survivorship account.
We can agree that I.C. sec. 26-1014, relating to joint account agreements, is intended primarily for the protection of the banks in making payment from joint accounts. We do not consider it to have any bearing on the issues in this case. Here the decedent owned the money prior to the execution of the written instrument disclosing a purpose and intent on his part to give another a joint interest. The property being the decedent’s, he could do with it as he pleased, and we know of no provision or principle of law which will prevent such a transfer as his expressed intent declared.
The majority expresses concern for the legal consequences of the joint account agreement — its direct effect upon the laws of intestate succession, community property, wills, and charitable bequests. We fail to understand how the rule promulgated in this minority opinion would have greater effect upon those statutes than does a true gift inter vivos. We do not understand that a gift inter vivos is set aside because it is contrary to the intestate laws, or because it does not comply with the statute of wills, or because it gives more than would be allowed under the charitable bequest limitations. And, of course, if a husband attempted to transfer community property to someone other than his spouse by means of a joint survivorship account, the situation would be no different from a gift inter vivos, of com*299munity property. Anderson v. Idaho Mutual Benefit Association, 77 Idaho 373, 292 P.2d 760.
Additional facts, in our opinion, compel the conclusion here reached. The decedent was a lawyer with many, many years of experience, with special and extensive experience in the field of banking. He was a “lone wolf” with his accumulations of wealth, self-sufficient, and rather not too communicative. He did not want to give up all control over his funds during his lifetime, was opposed to wills for reasons of his own, and was willing to provide other means of passing his property at his death. While the 1950 “power of attorney” card at the same bank was in effect and not revoked, in 1954 decedent executed the joint account agreement, with right of survivorship, with the appellants. It is a curious thing, if it was done solely for business convenience, that the appellant-wife was added to the bank card, or that the 1954 bank card was executed at all. The curiosity disappears, however, when the free and voluntary act of the decedent in 1954 is examined in the light of the clear language used, and which still stands without impeachment. The purpose is clear; “business convenience” is unsupported. The majority opinion explains that the administrator introduced evidence to show that the deceased intended the agreement to be for business convenience and necessity. That evidence is summarized into six parts, (a) to (f), and the majority con-eludes therefrom that the joint survivorship account agreement was executed for business necessity and convenience and did not constitute a valid transfer. In our opinion the conclusion is a non sequitur and unwarranted.
Considerable weight is given to the testimony of Frank Meek, longtime legal associate of decedent, to the effect that when he called upon the decedent and asked if he wished to make a transfer of all of his property to appellant-nephew, the decedent did not respond. It must be recognized that decedent did have considerable property other than the bank account in question, and his lack of response in no wise lessens the effect of his free and voluntary act in 1954 with respect to the bank account. On the contrary, decedent’s lack of response is consistent with the nature of the decedent as described by witness Meek, and affirmatively shows that decedent was quite capable of acting, and did act, in accord with his own will.
While we recognize that joint survivor-ship bank accounts may be peculiarities of the law, at the same time we must recognize their existence and common use. In the absence of any legislative enactment or legal principle prohibiting them, and until the legislature deems it wise to deal with them specifically, fair and.just rules aimed at certainty and tranquility should be applied, particularly when the intent is so clearly expressed 'by the parties as it was here.