Court Opinion

ID: 9727739
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 13:49:20.365002+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:42.341627
License: Public Domain

DeBRULER, Justice,
dissenting.
There is an implication in the language employed by the majority that a court can impose a constructive trust over the proceeds in a joint account only if there was some sort of wrong or immoral conduct on the part of the surviving joint tenant at the time of the formation of the account. This implication is false. There may be cases in which such conduct did occur and the imposition of a trust would therefore be proper. However a court should also impose a trust when the evidence is clear that at the time of the creation of the account the intent was to provide a means to effectuate a perfectly decent trust purpose and not to create a property right in the joint holder who is to carry out the trust purpose for the good of the other holder whose money goes into the account. I.C. 32-4-1.5-4. Here, during the life of Mary Himelick, Frank Reiss used the account for the sole purpose of dispensing Himelick's money for her benefit, and exerted no control over it for his own benefit or for any other purpose. The two were related and lived close together. There was a personal and confidential relationship between them. I see the evidence as clear and convincing that the sole intent of the two was to create a trust account. I would therefore reverse, as did the Court of Appeals.