Jones v. Bank of San Jose

BARTLETT, J.,

pro tern.

— By this action the respondent, James B. Jones, administrator of the estate of William 0. Jones, deceased, seeks a judgment against the respondent,

[697]

the Bank of San Jose, a corporation, for the sum of $1,629.66, which it is claimed the respondent bank had in its possession as a balance of a deposit made by W. 0. Jones with said bank, the inception of the account being a deposit of $2,000 on the 25th of November, 1913, by W. 0. Jones and the issuance and delivery to him of a pass-book by the bank, number 10,939, in the name of said W. 0. Jones. W. 0. Jones died on March 28, 1926. After due proceedings had the respondent, James B. Jones, a brother of W. 0. Jones, was appointed as administrator of the estate of W. 0. Jones on April 23, 1926, and thereafter qualified as such administrator on May 19, 1926. The administrator brought action against the bank for the recovery of the moneys in question and thereafter, on motion of the respondent Bank of San Jose, the money in dispute was deposited in court and the appellant Maud K. Lowe ordered substituted as defendant in the action in place of the Bank of San Jose.

The substituted defendant, Maud K. Lowe (appellant herein), answering the complaint in the action, averred that the money in question was at the date of the death of William 0. Jones, March 28,

1926, on

deposit with the bank in the names of W. 0. Jones or Maud K. Lowe, and that said W. 0. Jones, at the time of making said deposit and thereafter, gave said deposit to the appellant conditioned upon her surviving said W. 0. Jones, and that she is such survivor and is the owner of the whole of the moneys remaining of the deposit.

The action was tried by the court and judgment in favor of the respondent administrator given for the sum of $1,629.66 on June 28, 1926. From this judgment the substituted defendant, Maud K. Lowe, prosecutes this appeal. The facts of this case, as established by the evidence taken at the trial in the superior court, show that for some thirty years prior to his death W. 0. Jones resided at Lawrence Station in Santa Clara County, California, having a ranch at that point on which he conducted farming operations; that he was an old-time intimate acquaintance of the appellant and members of her family, and that at the time of his death he was of the age of about seventy-two years; that appellant’s mother lived at his place and took care of him for some six or eight years; that appellant visited her mother at this ranch on frequent occasions, and that at her mother’s