White v. Bank of America National Trust & Savings Ass'n

DOOLING, J. pro tem.

This appeal by the executrix of the will of Adelina Soares, deceased, is taken from a decree quieting the title of the defendants, Torres, to a savings account in defendant bank.

On July 23, 1940, the decedent was confined to her bed by what proved to be a fatal illness. She summoned M. L. Reece, a teller of defendant bank, to her home and informed him that she wished to convert a savings account which she had in his bank into a joint tenancy account with her sister Maria Isabel Torres and her nephew David C. Torres. Reece prepared a joint account card to be signed by the three intended joint depositors, and the decedent gave this card to a neighbor, Mr. Peterson, and requested him to mail it to the Torres, who were residing in Massachusetts, for their signatures. The signed card was returned to Peterson by the Torres and received by him about July 30. At decedent’s request Peterson delivered it to the bank bearing all three signatures. About August 7 or 8, decedent called in Peterson again and asked him to get in touch with Reece and find out why the transfer had not been completed; “she thought she might die before she had her signature put on there.” Peterson telephoned Reece and on August 9, Reece again visited decedent. The decedent signed two withdrawal orders

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(the second because her signature on the first was not distinct) and delivered the orders and her bank book to Reece for the purpose of transferring the money in her separate account into a joint account with the Torres. This was on Friday after banking hours. The bank was not again open for business until Monday morning, August 12. On Sunday, August 11, the decedent died before the bank book and withdrawal order had been taken to the bank by Reece. It was stipulated that Reece was not the agent of the bank.

It is appellant’s position that Reece was decedent’s agent for the purpose of having the account transferred into joint tenancy and that her death terminated his agency before the transfer was actually made. That decedent intended to transfer a joint tenancy interest in her account to the Torres by way of gift is plain from her entire course of conduct. The court found that prior to August 11, 1940, decedent did create a joint tenancy with the Torres in her account. Certainly before her death she had done everything within her physical power to complete the gift. She had procured and delivered to the bank the joint account card duly signed, and she had delivered to Reece her bank book and a withdrawal order with instructions to have the account transferred on the books of the bank to a joint tenancy account.