Court Opinion

ID: 9883416
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 01:42:13.672985+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:23.133932
License: Public Domain

POPOVICH, Chief Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent:
1. When Ada Pasch purchased the certificate on January 1, 1980, it was her funds and she designated her son and her three grandchildren as beneficiaries. The beneficiaries were not owners but had merely an expectancy of inheritance. She was notified of the maturity of July 1, 1982 by letter. When she did nothing, on February 23, 1983 the bank wrote her that the proceeds were deposited in her checking account. She wrote 75 checks on that account and can be presumed to know the account balances from February 1983 until her death in July. Her son drew three checks on the account before his mother’s death and took possession of the remaining funds after her death. How do we know during the period of time between February 1983 and her death that Ada Pasch had not changed her mind regarding terminating the trust relationship? Had she wanted to continue it, she could have created another one after receiving the money in her account. Her son was the surviving joint tenant of that account, how can we say she did not intend that he get whatever was in her account?
*7682. The certificate language that it will be paid when the certificate is surrendered is for the bank’s benefit. It obviously can waive the provision and pay the proceeds to the person who is the holder of the certificate and who originally purchased the certificate. This is what it did when it deposited the proceeds in the purchaser’s own checking account. She accepted payment, exercised control over it, and used part of it. The trial court’s findings of fact 13 and 14 to the contrary are incorrect in this respect.
3. As said in Grouf v. State National Bank of St. Louis, 76 F.2d 726, 730 (8th Cir.1935), “The finding of the court is that the receipt and retention by the Bank of the amount furnished was a payment pro tanto.” Here, payment to Pasch’s account, retention, and exercise of dominion over it constituted acceptance by her of what the bank did.